<p>According to <a href="https://www.iata.org/pressroom/pr/Pages/2008-31-05-01.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this study by the IATA</a>, it costs \$1 to process an e-ticket, versus \$10 to process paper ticket. I assume this is only from the airline's point of view. You could argue that this is not the "environmental cost" you care about, but I just wanted to point it out.</p>

<p>I'm a bit confused by your phone charging assumptions, but according to <a href="https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-cost-of-electricity-consumption-in-charging-a-10-000-mAh-power-bank-by-a-2-amp-charger" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this post</a>, it costs close to 1 cent to charge a phone (10,000 mAh, at least). Also, you won't need your phone at full charge to use e-ticket.</p>

<p>On top of that, paper tickets also have a lot of costs associated with it, from the manufacturing process, logistics of getting the paper to your local store, getting it from the store to your home. Then we need to talk about recycling costs, etc.</p>

<p>So without the cost of the phone taken into account, I still think it's more efficient to use e-ticket.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-07T03:25:56.483Z
I'm thinking if I had a home-made generator and which ran off burning paper tickets. I can't see how much energy I would get out of one little ticket. It would go out very quickly! Unlike burning some coal or a piece of wood!
zooby
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-07T03:27:26.323Z
I don't understand the \$10 to process a paper ticket? A piece of paper doesn't cost \$10. If I got a ticket for a concert that cost \$10, it wouldn't cost an extra \$10 for a paper ticket that would be madness! A piece of paper would cost 1 cent, and a phone charge would cost 1 cent. Which makes both cost 1 cent each.
zooby
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-07T03:30:36.347Z
I'm not sure I understand your comment about generating power by burning tickets. Regarding \$10, I imagine it costs airlines quite a lot for this ticket-printing machines at check in kiosks, needing then at every kiosks at every airports around the world.
Art
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-07T03:47:49.167Z
famously airlines overcharge for everything. If I'm printing out a paper ticket to go see a play or gig that costs \$5 I fail to see how my printed ticket has cost anyone \$10. So if I print out my 100 page novel on my printer, that would cost \$1000? I don't think so. Maybe \$5 for the paper and \$5 for the ink. Either way they'll be a man at the door checking people's tickets, paper or otherwise.
zooby
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-09T11:21:20.407Z
@zooby Did you read Art's comment? The $10 probably includes the cost of the ticket machines for example.
Criticize SE actions means ban
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-09T16:03:59.050Z
@user253751. Ridiculous. You can employ a man to look at peoples tickets for \$10 per hour. He could look at 100 tickets per hour. Adding 10 cents to the price of a ticket. I have bought tickets to many concerts that cost \$10. If it was costing them \$10 per ticket they would make \$0 profit. (I am not talking about airlines which for some reason everyone else is obsessed with!)
zooby
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-09T17:26:32.300Z
@zooby Well the example was about airlines, so your point is "it can't possibly cost airlines $10 to process paper tickets because it doesn't cost concerts $10 to process paper tickets." That is probably because concerts aren't airlines.
Criticize SE actions means ban
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-09T19:30:18.407Z
So where in my question were airlines mentioned?
zooby
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-07T00:52:14.410Z
2019-12-07T00:52:14.410Z
Art
<p>I always get an e-ticket on my mobile, to save the environment and so on.</p>

<p>But then I thought well, am I really saving trees? I have to give my phone a full charge in order that it doesn't run out just when the conductor asks for my ticket. Which means that it needs electricity and a powerstation is burning some fosil fuels somewhere no doubt.</p>

<p>So that got me wondering, which would be better for the environment, if everyone got e-tickets on their phones. Or everyone got a paper ticket.</p>

<p>We shall assume:</p>

<ul>
<li>We don't count manufacture of phone. (We assume we will have one
anyway). </li>
<li>When phone is not used for buying tickets it is not charged up.</li>
<li>One ticket per day. </li>
<li>Paper ticket is on A4 paper with ink.</li>
<li>E-ticket needs a full battery charge for the day.</li>
</ul>

<p>My intuition is that an e-ticket is worse because to get the energy needed to power a phone a would think it wold require burning many hundreds of paper tickets. Is this intutition correct?</p>

<environmental-economics>
Which is more economical with resources, an e-tick or a paper ticket?
zooby
# Which is more economical with resources, an e-tick or a paper ticket?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-12-06)

I always get an e-ticket on my mobile, to save the environment and so on.

But then I thought well, am I really saving trees? I have to give my phone a full charge in order that it doesn't run out just when the conductor asks for my ticket. Which means that it needs electricity and a powerstation is burning some fosil fuels somewhere no doubt.

So that got me wondering, which would be better for the environment, if everyone got e-tickets on their phones. Or everyone got a paper ticket.

We shall assume:

* We don't count manufacture of phone. (We assume we will have one
  anyway).
* When phone is not used for buying tickets it is not charged up.
* One ticket per day.
* Paper ticket is on A4 paper with ink.
* E-ticket needs a full battery charge for the day.

My intuition is that an e-ticket is worse because to get the energy needed to power a phone a would think it wold require burning many hundreds of paper tickets. Is this intutition correct?

**Tags:** environmental-economics


---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2019-12-07. Score: 1

According to [this study by the IATA](https://www.iata.org/pressroom/pr/Pages/2008-31-05-01.aspx), it costs \$1 to process an e-ticket, versus \$10 to process paper ticket. I assume this is only from the airline's point of view. You could argue that this is not the "environmental cost" you care about, but I just wanted to point it out.

I'm a bit confused by your phone charging assumptions, but according to [this post](https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-cost-of-electricity-consumption-in-charging-a-10-000-mAh-power-bank-by-a-2-amp-charger), it costs close to 1 cent to charge a phone (10,000 mAh, at least). Also, you won't need your phone at full charge to use e-ticket.

On top of that, paper tickets also have a lot of costs associated with it, from the manufacturing process, logistics of getting the paper to your local store, getting it from the store to your home. Then we need to talk about recycling costs, etc.

So without the cost of the phone taken into account, I still think it's more efficient to use e-ticket.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: I'm thinking if I had a home-made generator and which ran off burning paper tickets. I can't see how much energy I would get out of one little ticket. It would go out very quickly! Unlike burning some coal or a piece of wood!  
> **username_0**: I don't understand the \$10 to process a paper ticket? A piece of paper doesn't cost \$10. If I got a ticket for a concert that cost \$10, it wouldn't cost an extra \$10 for a paper ticket that would be madness! A piece of paper would cost 1 cent, and a phone charge would cost 1 cent. Which makes both cost 1 cent each.  
> **username_1**: I'm not sure I understand your comment about generating power by burning tickets. Regarding \$10, I imagine it costs airlines quite a lot for this ticket-printing machines at check in kiosks, needing then at every kiosks at every airports around the world.  
> **username_0**: famously airlines overcharge for everything. If I'm printing out a paper ticket to go see a play or gig that costs \$5 I fail to see how my printed ticket has cost anyone \$10. So if I print out my 100 page novel on my printer, that would cost \$1000? I don't think so. Maybe \$5 for the paper and \$5 for the ink. Either way they'll be a man at the door checking people's tickets, paper or otherwise.  
> **username_2**: @username_0 Did you read username_1's comment? The $10 probably includes the cost of the ticket machines for example.  
> **username_0**: @user253751. Ridiculous. You can employ a man to look at peoples tickets for \$10 per hour. He could look at 100 tickets per hour. Adding 10 cents to the price of a ticket. I have bought tickets to many concerts that cost \$10. If it was costing them \$10 per ticket they would make \$0 profit. (I am not talking about airlines which for some reason everyone else is obsessed with!)  
> **username_2**: @username_0 Well the example was about airlines, so your point is "it can't possibly cost airlines $10 to process paper tickets because it doesn't cost concerts $10 to process paper tickets." That is probably because concerts aren't airlines.  
> **username_0**: So where in my question were airlines mentioned?  

---

