Payment cards go beyond plastic

Tieto Banktech’s card-issuer customers are increasingly choosing materials other than virgin plastic for the payment cards they source from us.

More sustainable card materials

Tieto Banktech delivers approximately 20 million payment cards each year. Card issuers are increasingly choosing recycled or biodegradable materials instead of virgin plastic for the body of their cards. This gives issuers more options to reduce the environmental impact of physical cards while differentiating their card offering.

Card materials

Alternatives to virgin plastic

Payment cards are traditionally made from layers of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a material derived from oil. More sustainable cards replace some or all of these layers with materials other than virgin PVC.

Tieto Banktech works with two approaches. The first uses recycled plastic materials such as recycled PVC (rPVC) or recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET). The second uses biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA), which is made from corn starch.

The choice depends on the card issuer’s preferences.

The benefits

More choice in card materials

Materials other than virgin plastic give card issuers more options to address sustainability while differentiating their physical card offering.

1

Use recycled materials

Card issuers can choose recycled plastic materials such as rPVC or rPET as alternatives to virgin plastic.
2

Explore biodegradable cards

Biodegradable PLA, made from corn starch, provides another material option for the body of payment cards.
3

Differentiate the card offering

Physical payment cards remain a visible brand touchpoint. More sustainable materials give banks and fintechs additional ways to differentiate their cards.

Customer example

Turning ocean plastic into cards

Tieto Banktech agreed with the Savings Bank group in Finland to enable the bank to offer payment cards made from plastic collected from oceans and coastal regions.

The plastic is collected in countries without adequate recycling facilities and reused in payment cards, providing an alternative to virgin plastic.

Expert perspective

The growing trend towards using materials other than virgin plastic for cards is a win-win for sustainability on the one hand, and market differentiation for our issuing customers on the other.

Tieto Banktech

Card recycling

Exploring the full card lifecycle

Tieto Banktech also launched a pilot with Norwegian banking alliance SpareBank 1 to assess the viability of recycling expired payment cards.

When customers receive a new card, they also receive a return envelope and instructions for sending the expired card back. Returned cards are then sent to a partner for recycling.

The pilot was designed to assess the overall CO2 impact before a potential wider rollout.

Payment cards