As you read this, over 30,000 tonnes of plastic a week is making its way to a landfill near you - and you will be responsible. Why? Because you renewed, or got a new credit card. Each year, some six billion credit cards are produced which means some 2 million tonnes of polymer plastic hits the trash pile every year. But help might be in sight: the big issuers are looking to go green. By James Teo.
Tasmania, July 2020. One of the biggest issuers of credit cards, Mastercard, has committed to making a move to recycling its key product. And with some six billion cards produced worldwide every year, then replaced every three to four years, more than 5.5 million tons of plastic cards ends up in landfill, according to Mastercard. But as IDEMIA, one of the company’s main card producers has noted, times are changing in the consumer world and any small impact on the plastic problem is seen as a good one.
“It’s no secret that we all need to change the way we live and consume to reduce the impact we’re having on our planet,” said Pierre Barrial, EVP at IDEMIA. “It’s essential … to effect change for the better and play our part to reduce our reliance on plastic,” he noted.
Keith Vorst is a plastics recycling expert at Iowa State University. Courtesy Iowa State.
The problem with most credit (and many membership) cards is that they are made from the composite plastic polyvinylchloride acetate or PVCA, rather than just straight (and relatively reusable PVC. “Most credit cards are made of PVCA,” explained Ass. Prof. Keith Vorst, an expert in polymer and bioplastic materials at Iowa State University. “The (added) acetate gives the card some stiffness, yet maintains some flexibility — which is why it’s such a good fit for the credit card (material). But it’s the same reason why credit cards are a difficult to recycle.” Worse, PVCA is a synthetic plastic polymer which includes salt and oil among its key ingredients. These make it tough and resistant to cracking or failing in your wallet or purse, but mean they do not naturally biodegrade. Usually, they stay intact for decades before breaking down into microplastic particles that can quickly choke ocean life.
So both in terms of depletion of resources, and environment-poisoning leftovers, credit cards are a plague. Admittedly, used PVC can be ground up into tiny granules which can then be mixed with straight PVC to make low-grade components like vinyl flooring, window frames, or non-critical piping. But that is relatively expensive to do correctly, so the cards continue to head for landfills by the tonne.
To make credit cards more enviro-friendly, the issuers need to look at new materials, says Stephanie Ng Tseung, at one eco-aware bank in Mauritius. “We are converting our cards to polylactic acid (PLA) plastic, which reduces traditional PVC use by more than 80%,” she explains. “In addition, every time that a customer uses a … card, we make a contribution to (a local) Wildlife Foundation to help save threatened species,” she says. The PLA cards are sourced from renewable sources such as plant leaves and corn, rather than oil and salt; the material is also biodegradable, recyclable and non-toxic if incinerated.
Card and coffee is OK. Eating the corn-based card isn’t, says Sarah Laughton. Courtesy Triodos.
Another issuer, Dutch-based bank Triodos, is also using PLA for its cards. And while they are made mainly from corn, the company wouldn’t recommend cooking your card once it expires, says Sarah Laughton of Triodos. “Customers should put the (old) card in with their normal waste, as it will biodegrade eventually with no toxic leakage – unlike PVC plastic cards,” she smiles. “Only the chip and strip in our card are not biodegradable, but they are recyclable.”
Tseung and Laughton’s banks are the leaders but the trend is accelerating, with more than 60 financial institutions now issuing credit cards made from recyclable, bio-sourced, chlorine-free, degradable or ocean-friendly plastics. These include Crédit Agricole, DBS Bank Taiwan and Santander. “Our goal is simple," said Ajay Bhalla, MasterCard spokesperson. “We want to help banks offer more eco-friendly cards to consumers, and we are taking concrete steps to bring about that change.”
Another card manufacturer, CPI, has just teamed up with the other credit card giant, VISA, to offer what it calls its Earthwise Card. These are extruded from up to 98% upcycled plastic, sourced from previously discarded items. It uses recycled post-industrial polyethylene terephthalate glycol (rPET-G) for the base card material, which although oil-based is already a recycled product so does not deplete existing resources. Together with only about 2% of essential non-plastic components like the ID chip, antenna and adhesives, it keeps the card way more sustainable says VISA. One of the newest banks to take up new recycled cards is Malaysia’s RHB Bank. It has issued the WWF Debit Card-i card which is says saves over 3.0gram of industrial waste per card, or potentially thousands of tonnes industry-wide.
"We are proud to be part of the solution in creating less plastic waste and reducing land and water pollution while optimizing our carbon footprint,” says Vincent Mouret, IDEMIA Asia spokeperson. “Every single contribution we can make towards a greener world matters.”