Developing a life cycle strategy for an eco-friendly card involves a global approach. Banks have to choose the right technology, processes, and products to substantially reduce adverse environmental impacts such as energy consumption, carbon footprint, and plastic waste. A Romanian company, Thales Gemalto Bio Sourced PLA, cards replace 84% of fossil-based PVC with bio-sourced PLA made from non-edible corn. Polylactic acid (PLA) is a sustainable plastic substitute made with renewable bio-sourced resources such as corn. It is non-petroleum-based and non-toxic if incinerated. The Romanian company was the first card manufacturer to provide a PLA card body for banking cards.
Can bank card be recycled?
The answer is YES, but it’s not that obvious. Every banking card is a well-designed compound made up of metals (copper, nickel, gold, aluminium, iron), resin, glass, silicon, and plastics (PVC, PET). This complexity makes recycling credit cards challenging.
How does the recycling process work?
The bank will be the one in charge of collecting the cards from their customer, and the Romanian company acts as an aggregator to shred and store everything in the secured facility. It will then be sent to a recycling facility once it reaches a specific volume. This is what happens in the recycling facility:
Recover plastic energy:
- The cards contain plastic (like PVC, PLA, PET): all will be incinerated to recover the energy, meaning the heat out from the process. In such a process, Bio-sourced material such as PLA(Poly Lactic Acid) is a better option compared to PVC, as it will not generate toxic gas during the incineration process.
Recycle metals:
- The heat from the previous process will then be used to recycle the metals within the cards, including gold, palladium, and copper. The metal will be sent to manufacturing for a second-life: gold for jewellery, other metals for wires.
Read more HERE
Comments
comments
