A cashless society is defined as one that doesn’t use cash in monetary transactions (交易). These societies favor alternative means of payment, such     1     credit cards, or contactless payment.

Of all the companies     2     (move) closer to becoming cashless, most people agree that Sweden is the closest. 85% of the country has access to online banking and only 2% of the country’s transactions consist of cash.

There     3     (be) a number of reasons for this cashless trend. Sweden has access to a popular payment app     4     (call) Swish, which more than 50% of the country uses. But the     5     (big ) catalyst (引发变化的因素) so far is that most Swedish merchants don’t access cash payment.

China also has a vast cashless market,    6     is mostly dominated by Tencent’s WeChat Pay or Alipay, which is owned by Alibaba. But unlike many other countries, China hasn’t embraced (欣然接受) credit card payment. Instead, most Chinese consumers make payment by scanning QR codes (二维码) on     7     (they) phones.

Most merchants request payment via QR codes and it’s not uncommon     8     (see) QR codes located all throughout China. And this trend is starting to spread to other countries that have a lot of Chinese     9     (travel).

The growing cashless trend has led many people to wonder     10     the U.S. will eventually go cashless. It is possible since U.S. consumers are increasingly moving away from cash and embracing other forms of payment.

2 . Three months ago, I landed in Beijing International Airport after a very long flight from Vancouver, Canada. I thought that it would just be a normal summer, but little did I know that my understanding of how to pay for things was about to be completely changed. 

As an international student who had not been back to China for three years, I knew that it would take me some time to readjust to the life in China. However, I did not expect that I wouldn’t even be able to do things as simple as taking the subway. 

I still remember asking my cousin if I could borrow his metro card. He looked at me with such astonishment and then started laughing: “No one uses a metro card now. You have your phone!” He then explained to me which application I needed to download and how to connect it with WeChat pay. 

I was so dumbfounded by how convenient payment had become in China. When I had just come back, I still had the habit of carrying some cash with me when I went out. But soon, I realized that there was no place for me to use it. Even the smallest convenience stores support Alipay or WeChat pay. Online transactions (交易) and mobile payments have become the new norm.

Mobile payment is so common for people in China that they are used to it by now. But for me, it has been new and exciting. 

Back in Vancouver, there was no way of going to the mall or supermarket without carrying cash, a debit card (借记卡) or a credit card. Mobile payment in Canada is not as prevalent (流行的) as it is in China. Personally, I have never paid using my phone during my stay in Canada. I had to carry cash around everywhere. Contrary to that, I have not used cash to pay at all since I arrived back in China. 

Now I am getting used to the concept of mobile payment. Gradually, I stopped asking the vendors (小贩) if I could use WeChat pay and just showed them my payment code. Thinking back on my experience with this “new” method of paying over the past few months, I have to admit that our lives have indeed become much more convenient with the presence of mobile payment.

7 . Generally speaking, convenience and safety affect how we choose to pay for things. Environmental concerns do, too.

Each time you pull out a credit, use a phone’s wallet app or hand over cash, you take part in a system. Some parts of that system make things, like coins, bills or cards. Other parts move money between buyers, sellers, banks and others. Used cash, cards and equipment will be eventually disposed of (处理), as well. Each part of this system uses materials and energy. And all parts produce waste.

Now researchers are looking more closely at how “green” these payment systems are. They’re finding buyers can help cut some of the environmental costs, no matter how they pay.

To understand the full “cost” to society of money or any other system, researchers can perform what’s called a life-cycle assessment. It looks at all the environmental impacts of a product or process. It starts with mining, growing or making the raw materials. It includes what happens while something is in use. And it considers the final disposal or reuse of things.

Even though raw materials are the first step, in fact there are raw materials added in at every single step along the journey. For money, raw materials go into each step of something that is “made”. Fuels are the raw materials for energy to make products and transport them. More energy goes into using products. Recycling or disposal also requires energy, plus water, soil or other materials.

People don’t realize most of those steps, so they can’t judge if one form of payment is dirtier or more costly. And that’s a problem, researchers say. It’s also what has got some of them to show more about the costs of how we pay for our lifestyles.

A life-cycle assessment doesn’t tell you what to do. However, it gives you an informed basis for making a decision.

Yours

Li Jin