Sometimes it’s the little things that can save the world.

Yesterday on my way into the office I stopped at Dunkin Donuts to pick up a lemon poppy seed muffin. Maybe not the healthiest thing in the world, but I have a suspicion that the low-fat blueberry muffins are loaded with other stuff to make up for the lack of tasty fat – things like sugar, extra chemicals, hormones, high fructose corn syrup (which is the nom de plume of sugar) and possibly some other ingredients with very long names.

So I paid for the muffin, took my receipt, and had a strange thought. Because of that thought, I stood there and watched the line for a few minutes, and besides realizing that the eating habits of the average American are pretty disgusting, had a small but possibly far reaching epiphany.

Why did they need to give me a receipt for a lemon poppy seed muffin that was handed to me on the spot? I couldn’t imagine a scenario where this would even be remotely useful. If I got to the office and said to Harriet:

“Hey – I just had a great lemon poppy seed muffin at Dunkin Donuts,”

is there any chance that she would retort

“You lying sack of shit! I don’t believe you. Can you prove it?”

At which point I would smugly pull out my receipt and yell

“Yeah – here’s your proof baby!”

That just does not happen. And as far as I know, no one has ever been asked to provide a muffin receipt as part of a tax return unless that muffin was a business expense, in which case you should have gone somewhere a lot fancier than Dunkin Donuts.

Think about how many times each day someone goes to 7-11, McDonalds, Starbucks or the like and is given a totally useless paper receipt? It’s got to be in the billions.

Yeah, I know – sometimes they will actually ask you if you want a receipt. But if you say “no thanks,” they simply print the thing up and stick it in the trash.

So what would happen if all of these places stopped printing out receipts unless the customer requested one?

· Hundreds of thousands of trees would be saved
· Countless less acres of landfill space would be used
· Carbon dioxide emissions would be decreased significantly
· Business would save billions of dollars in paper, toner and electricity – which could be passed on to the consumer or used to increase profits
· There would be lots less trash to clean up

The downside? I can’t really think of one.

So there you have it – a tiny, simple, sensible idea that truly could change the world. I just have no idea how to implement it!!

Rich