Whilst Australia slowly edges closer to converting to Chip and PIN technology a new technology is being trialled in the UK that generates a unqiue number on a display on the back of the card when you type your PIN into the card using buttons on the reverse. This generated number can then be entered into a web payment system and the credit card authority validates that the number is correct. So even if your card is stolen, it can’t be used by someone over the phone or on the web.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8046782.stm

Nothing to do with the environment, it’s just cool stuff.