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Thermal paper, receipts and boarding passes: extra considerations

8 May 2026 · 7 min read · DeSnipperaar

Receipts, payment slips, train tickets, boarding passes, parking tickets and PIN transactions: nearly all on thermal paper. It looks innocent, that light smooth roll that disappears into a drawer or is handed over at a PIN transaction. Yet more personal data sits on it than you might think, and the material itself behaves differently from normal paper in both the shredder and the recycling process. A short guide for business organisations that want to handle it carefully.

What is really on it?

A typical business receipt from a petrol station, restaurant or shop contains:

• Date, time, location of the transaction.
• Last four digits of the PIN card.
• Sometimes: name of the cardholder on credit card transactions.
• Amount, VAT split, payment method.
• Loyalty number or customer card code.
• On hospitality receipts: table number, server, sometimes purchase patterns.

Boarding passes go further. The barcode contains flight number, name, date of birth (partial), frequent-flyer number, sometimes passport number depending on the airline. Anyone scanning the barcode knows your whole travel profile.

Rule of thumb: treat boarding passes and payment documents as personal data. They do not belong in the open paper bin at the office or in a holiday bag.

Why thermal paper is different

Thermal paper is not ordinary paper. It consists of a paper carrier with a heat-sensitive layer of leuco dye and a colour developer (often BPA or BPS). That layer turns black when heated, and that is how the text is "printed". Two consequences:

• Recycling restriction. Many paper mills only accept thermal paper in a diluted fraction, because the chemical developer contaminates the pulp. In Europe BPA in new thermal paper has been banned since 2020 (ECHA decision), but old stock still contains it. BPS, the replacement, is also under reassessment.
• Fading. Thermal paper fades on exposure to heat, sunlight and contact with plastic. A receipt placed in a clear sleeve next to PVC can become unreadable within weeks. For accounting that is a problem; for data safety it is actually convenient.

Into the regular archive or not?

For tax retention you typically must keep payment receipts for 7 years. But if the receipt fades you no longer have a readable record. Good practice: scan thermal receipts immediately (within a week) and keep the scan, not the physical receipt. That solves both the retention problem (digital stays readable) and the destruction problem (after scanning they can be destroyed comfortably within the period, because the scan becomes the record).

For how this fits within the wider tax retention obligation, read 7-year tax retention and the GDPR retention periods cheatsheet.

Destruction: what works

Thermal paper can simply go through our mobile shredder. The cellulose carrier is the same as in regular paper; it shreds to DIN 66399 P-5 without issue. At the paper mill it is processed in the diluted stream where regular receipts are also accepted.

• Yes: mix with regular confidential paper in the same container.
• No: burn in an open fire or barbecue. The chemical coating gives off harmful fumes, even with BPA-free paper.
• No: in the plastic recycling bin. It is paper, not plastic.

Boarding passes: special attention

Throwing a boarding pass away at the airport is a habit with underestimated risk. The barcode contains enough to look up your whole profile in airline systems: today's flights, prior bookings, status, sometimes passport details. Security researchers have been showing for years that most boarding pass codes can be read with an ordinary barcode scanner app on a phone.

For business travel: treat boarding passes as documentation, not as throwaway. Collect them, destroy them with your regular confidential paper. If they happen to be in return boxes after a business trip with merchandise returns, they fit there too.

Practical tips for business organisations

1. Put sealed bins on the expense desk. Not open bins; plain locked consoles.
2. Scan-and-shred within a working week. Set the policy: receipts are scanned, the original may go after 5 working days.
3. Travellers do it themselves at the office. Give expense filers no excuse to take receipts home.
4. Combine with the paper collection. Thermal paper goes in the same stream; no separate route required.

What does this look like on the certificate?

On your destruction certificate "paper" appears as the material type. Thermal paper falls under that; no separate mention required. It is worth documenting in your internal procedure that thermal receipts are included, so the auditor knows you have not skipped a separate stream.

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Does your organisation handle lots of receipts or expense claims? Request advice via desnipperaar.nl on a suitable bin setup and frequency.