The same observations are made on container deposits and recycling rates in the USA.

There are 10 states in the United States with container deposit legislation.

The US overall container recycling rate is ~ 33%, while states with a $0.05 container deposit laws have a ~70% average rate of container recycling.

Michigan is over 90% as its deposit is $0.10.

So why don’t more states have “bottle bills?” Because Coke, Pepsi, and the beverage industry oppose it

https://www.industryweek.com/the-economy/regulations/article...

The London Underground's Oyster (more like OMNY than MetroCard) has a refundable deposit. So in principle you could give back your Oyster and get the deposit. Of course it's not very much money and most people might need an Oyster again sooner or later so this is rarely taken up, but it discourages people from throwing them away.

Because people from far away are less likely to imagine ever needing an Oyster again, yet might still need one right now (especially before contactless payment cards would work just as well for most short term visitors) there was a scheme where you could just "donate" your card to charity at places like airports, I don't know if it still exists.

Because Oyster is variable fare even in the simplest scenarios (a trip from Stockwell to Brixton for example, versus a train going from central London out to Amersham at the far end of the line are different prices, before any consideration about season tickets, time of day etc.) it is possible to have a card that's valid to enter the system (it has enough money that you could make some trip) but then make a trip it can't pay for. In this case the balance on the card falls below zero on exit, to use it again you'll need to first pay the excess and enough for a ride somewhere. So you'd expect to see some number of cards discarded in this state, since they are in some sense less than worthless. But the inconvenience of needing a new card seems to out-weigh that.

Fares are a boondoggle that I won't be surprised to see eliminated by major cities in the next decades. LA metro is planning on moving to a fareless system. As it stands fares only cover a tiny portion of the operating budget, and most riders on public transit live below the poverty line in LA county at least so the fare weighs a lot more heavily than you might expect.

Reusing an electronic payment allows your trips to he connected and used to track you. There was nothing wrong with tokens and this fee is a huge increase for people who don't want to be tracked. RFID would make it even more difficult to avoid the eye of sauron.

It's a real bummer, as those of us who don't want our trips tracked/correlated now incur an extra $1 charge every single trip.

Related: Never hit the "$19" button when getting a new MetroCard -- they are actively trying to cheat you with that, as it will leave you with just $0.05 short of a fare leftover on a card.

https://www.6sqft.com/19-05-is-the-perfect-amount-to-load-on...

The article's number of $19.05 is likely out of date since the last fare increase though.

And yes, the MTA is cheaper for hackers with an engineering degree and more expensive for unskilled laborers. SMH.