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The Dunedin City Council has introduced environmentally friendly receipts for 90 per cent of the 400 pay-and-display meters in the city. Replacing the previous plastic-coated tickets, the new receipts will be made from 100 per cent paper, meaning they are completely biodegradable.

Community and Environment Committee Chairwoman Cr Jinty MacTavish said the new receipts will reduce the amount of litter and pollution on beaches and the marine environment, and such continual refinement is “in line with our vision of becoming a zero waste city.” She added that the new receipts have no plastic coating and that the receipts can be recycled in residents’ yellow kerbside bins. Cr MacTavish said that the new initiative will come at no extra cost, and the paper would be sourced from the same Auckland supplier.

The need for change was seen three years ago when those involved in coastal clean-ups around the area were finding a number of plastic-coated receipts on beaches, especially in the Otago Harbour. The concerns were then included in the Annual Plan process, to which the Council responded by trialling paper alternatives in October last year. Brent Bachop, Citifleet/Citipark Team Leader, said that while advice from meter manufacturers had indicated the paper needed a plastic coating to work properly in the machines, the trial revealed that the 100 per cent paper receipts also worked. The former plastic receipts will be entirely phased out as the new paper alternatives are brought in.

The DCC is currently the only local authority in Australisia using paper receipts for pay-and-display machines. Cr MacTavish says, “This great result shows how rewarding it can be – and how simple it can be!”

With pay-and-display meters placed around many University Buildings and popular flatting areas, students will be directly affected by the change. Critic spoke to University of Otago student Bonnie O’Donoghue who said, “knowing that I’ll be saving the environment [while producing carbon emissions from my car] is really the icing on top of the cake.” Grace Borgdorff also added that she would now “be far more enthusiastic to use pay-and-display machines around the city.” Critic suggests that the paper receipts may also double as extra note paper to write passive aggressive notes around the flat, as well as being an alternative to using the pages of Critic as toilet paper when the flat’s supplies are depleted.