California advances bill that would ban toxic chemicals from cashier's receipts

Chaewon Chung, The Sacramento Bee on Apr 7, 2026

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — An Assembly bill targeting man-made toxic chemicals on cashier’s receipts passed through the Assembly Judiciary Committee on Tuesday with bipartisan support.

The development follows the bill’s initial advancement last month by the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee, where it also received unanimous support.

“Receipts are known to generate millions of pounds of waste and billions of pounds of carbon dioxide per year, and they are harmful to human health, can’t be recycled and end up contaminating our recycling systems,” Stefani said during the committee hearing.

“People who handle receipts every day, especially our cashiers, are exposed to these chemicals over and over again.”

Assembly Bill 1604, authored by Catherine Stefani, a San Francisco Democrat, was introduced in January and would ban the use of hormone-disrupting BPA, or bisphenol A, starting in 2027, and BPS, or bisphenol S, starting in 2028.

After BPA was widely recognized as harmful, manufacturers of thermal receipt paper often replaced the chemical with BPS — meaning, while a product may be labeled BPA-free, it can still contain BPS, which has also been found to be hormonally disruptive and harmful. In a 2022 report, the Ecology Center found that BPA-based receipts had been “almost entirely” replaced by BPS.

Tony Hackett, a policy associate with Californians Against Waste, a co-sponsor of the bill, argued that the state should aim to go bisphenol-free rather than banning BPA alone, citing the health risks of exposure to bisphenol S, including “asthma, reproductive harm, metabolic disease and cancer.”

“These chemicals are absorbed through the skin when handling receipts,” Hackett said.

“The good news is that safer alternatives already exist. About 20% of receipts are already bisphenol free. It’s time to eliminate this entire class of chemicals from receipt paper,” he added.

The bill now moves to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

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