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Comment by lsllc | Hacker News Reader

That may have been the case, but pretty much everywhere I go stores have newer EMV capable terminals (e.g Ingenico etc). The only place I really use mag swipe now is a gas station pump (who have no excuse not to switch to contactless EMV).

You'd think with COVID-19, there'd be a rush to move to contactless payments.

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Yeah I actually choose gas stations that support contact less payments. No card contact + one disposable glove is the way to go.

Overkill.. Maybe? But it costs me nothing so I'll take the peice of mind.

I'm really not trying to be rude here, but a disposable plastic glove isn't a "cost nothing" scenario. Plastic pollution is bad. Climate change is real. Trash islands are real. Microplastics in the entire food chain is real. I admire your dedication to stay safe, and don't want you to stop feeling safe, but we must all begin to accept what we're doing to the environment.

Understandable, but the cost to produce a glove is still very minor. And the way you solve pollution and microplastics from items in the trash can is by making sure that trash from cans is handled appropriately. Not by having consumers reduce their trash by a few percent. The climate damage is the only thing where you can really put responsibility on the consumer, and that can be fixed with a well-directed fraction of a penny.

>the cost to produce a glove is still very minor.

It's not about your individual glove. It's the 300million-ish people using 10 disposable gloves a day.

>And the way you solve pollution and microplastics from items in the trash can is by making sure that trash from cans is handled appropriately. Not by having consumers reduce their trash by a few percent.

How can you handle the level of trash we have responsibly? what's the plan? You seem to know, so please share it with the world so we can save the planet.

I totally understand your point about the environment.

Given that I only fill my car once every 14 days, and only use 1 single glove for the hand touching the handle, I'm not overly concerned about the generated waste. Even if every American did this during the pandemic it would be dwarfed by the number of gloves used by hospitals even before covid.

I certainly agree that plastic waste is a major issue, and I'll certainly re-evaluate my current method when we aren't mid pandemic, but I'm confident there's simpler ways to reduce plastic waste in more meaningful amounts. I'm pretty sure that I've removed more unnecessary packaging plastic from purchased goods in the past month then gloves I've personally used total this year (I dabble with stuff you want to wear gloves with).

It's literally not about you, the individual. I'm not trying to chastise you, but we, as a society, need to consider waste. If 300 million people have your mindset, then that's 300million plastic gloves in a landfill every 14 days, which is too much. And I assure you that other people don't have your mindset.

The trash from trash cans can be buried safely in landfills without much difficulty. The big problems arise when we cut corners or have plastic trash that is not in trash cans.

https://www.collinslaw.com/blog/why-landfills-are-dangerous-...

A lot of people think COVID-19 is indeed the thing that will tip this into the mainstream default: https://www.bankingdive.com/news/will-covid-19-push-contactl...

I hope so. On a related note, I don't know if this is just me, but I literally have not used cash since March (although I keep hearing about a "coin shortage", perhaps this is people just not using coin anymore).

Same. And yes, that's my understanding plus other factors: low usage of mass transit ticket machines and laundromats. Plus few people rolling coins and bringing them into a bank right now.

Lots of gas stations do use the chip, but it's the same process of inserting the card.

Never been to a pump that uses chip personally, unless you pay inside. I've seen ~5 with a contactless tap point, but only got about 2 of them to work.

This is in Texas, for reference.

In New England, I've never seen anything other than a magstripe insert-remove type reader in a gas pump (although I think some do contactless EMV).

FWIW, At least in MA, it's rare to see a gas pump older than 10 years -- I think due to both Federal and MA State UST laws that require fairly recent (e.g. 2019) minimum standards such as double walled, properly cathodized, leak detecting tanks along with subsidies for tank replacement that have resulted in pretty much every gas station around here being totally renovated in the past 5 years or so.

https://www.mass.gov/guides/massdep-underground-storage-tank...

pretty much everywhere I go stores have newer EMV capable terminals

Go more places.

I know of a national restaurant chain and a regional coffee chain that are swipe only.

Also, Lowe's was swipe only the last time I was in there, but that was a several months ago.

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