Have a look at the little docket that comes with your coffee. That shiny paper is thermal paper, printed with heat rather than ink, and its coating means it cannot go in the recycling; billions of them are printed in Australia every year, glanced at once and binned. Melbourne founder Shahryar Faraji built 1receipt to retire them: the platform sends a digital receipt straight to a shopper's phone at the till, with no name, email or personal details handed over. In June the idea won the Victorian iAward for sustainability innovation, and on 27 August it represents Victoria at the national finals in Sydney.
The arithmetic is the cheerful part. By the company's own figures, if just half of Australia's retailers made the switch, the country would keep more than six hundred thousand trees standing, save seven billion litres of water and skip more than two thousand tonnes of paper waste, every year, without anyone giving anything up. And while the tills catch up, the reader action is the easiest we have ever printed: when you are offered a receipt you do not need, a warm no thanks does the planet a small favour on the spot. Your bank statement remembers the coffee anyway.
Our short take: the full story is by retailbiz, reporting the 2026 Victorian iAwards by the Australian Information Industry Association. Name: Shahryar Faraji, founder of 1receipt.