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I started a protest and signed a petition this morning. I didn’t intend to do anything, and wasn’t even thinking about it until the situation arose.

I am no longer claiming responsibility for unsolicited pay-at-the-pump receipts. If you print out something and try to hand it to me, I will just not take it anymore. It is your receipt, you keep it.

Here’s the story: I just stopped by the usual on-the-way-to-work gas station this morning. I swiped my credit card at the pump and had to answer a couple of questions (Debit card? Y/N, Car wash? Y/N) before I could pump the gas.

While I was watching the gallons and dollars numbers increase, my attention was drawn to the receipt that was blowin’ in the wind. The two previous customers had not taken their receipts, so a strand of paper was sticking out of the gas pump. On this particular type of receipt-printing pump, the receipt does not normally protrude very much, so if you’re not expecting a receipt to print, it is easy to miss it because it is small.

My thoughts while observing this receipt and waiting for the gas to fill my vehicle were akin to these:
“Huh, two receipts still in the pump…”
“I bet the first guy didn’t even know he left his receipt in there.”
“I wonder if the second guy just left his on purpose.”
“I wish this gas station gave me an option to decline the receipt.”
“I wish I could leave my receipt here on purpose.”
“Hey, why don’t I?”

So I checked the receipts to make sure they did not show the whole credit card number. Then I empowered myself to just leave the receipt in the machine. I don’t want the receipt, why should I waste my time pulling it out of the printer and walking it over to the trash can? At some point, someone, whether it is the gas station attendant whose job is to clean and maintain the pumps or it is the customer who really does want his receipt, will tear all the receipts off the pump.

How much time and expense goes into replacing the receipt paper in the pumps and emptying the trash cans? All that could be money saved by that business with one simple change. The pumps already ask about debit cards and car washes, so I know they have the capability of asking about receipts too.

If you’re reading this, Mr. Valero, why don’t you have your gas pumps ask people if they want receipts? Because most of them don’t want them. And if you see me frequenting the Meijer gas station across the street more, and yours less, it is because Meijer lets me decline the receipt.

Consider all the names on receipts left in pumps as signatures on the petition to stop automatically printing receipts.

“We will sing for joy over your victory,And in the name of our God we will set up our banners May the LORD fulfill all your petitions.”
– Psalm 20:5