Re:The tiny chip that powers Montreal subway tickets
by kube-system on Monday June 24, 2024 @01:13PM
(#40778507)
> Buying a reusable token doesn't take 20 minutes more than buying a paper ticket.
No, but it could expend 20x the resources, and not be used 20x as much.
As the article mentions, the purpose of these paper tickets is for single-use or short term use, and the system also supports plastic cards for longer term use.
The antenna isn't, however. In any case, I think there's a pretty high chance these tickets will not end up in a dedicated recycling facility that can properly separate antenna from paper and recycle both, disregarding the chip.
For similar reasons, Japan is phasing out even magnetic stripe single-ride tickets out of recycling concerns (in favor of QR code based ones).
> Imagine someone who is spending 20 minutes to save themselves 4 pennies on their electrical bill
That's not an appropriate comparison, though. Buying a reusable token doesn't take 20 minutes more than buying a paper ticket.
Imagine instead a device manufacturer spending some months of R&D to help every single household in a large country save 4 pennies on their electrical bills, and it doesn't seem so absurd anymore.