Mastercard Launches Global Initiative To Recycle Credit, Debit Cards

Alex Cheong Pui Yin

22nd June 2023 - 2 min read

Mastercard has launched a global recycling initiative as part of its sustainability efforts, seeking to prevent billions of credit and debit cards in circulation from being disposed into landfills.

To kick off the project, Mastercard is currently partnered with HSBC Holdings Plc in eight branches in Britain for a trial run, but the payments company has also urged banks across the world to join in on its initiative. “We are inviting all card issuers around the world to partner with us, no matter what region they are in, and offer card recycling to their customers,” said the president of cyber and intelligence at Mastercard Inc., Ajay Bhalla.

In the meantime, Mastercard and HSBC’s pilot run is set to run for an initial six months, with Mastercard providing the bank with a few shredding machines. Each is capable of holding 10,000 cards – equivalent to 50kg of plastic – which will be transferred to a plastic recycling facility once filled. Customers will be able to recycle any plastic cards, including those from other banks.

At present, Mastercard itself has approximately 3.1 billion cards in circulation. The industry, meanwhile, produces around 600 million cards each year, with each card having a life span of about five years. Nilson Report – a publication that covers news regarding the global card and mobile payment industry – further estimated that the total number of cards in circulation stood at nearly 26 billion in 2022, and may eventually rise to 28.4 billion by 2027.

Locally, several banks have also launched their own sustainability initiatives to help reduce the use of plastic in producing cards. RHB Islamic, for instance, became the first bank in Asia Pacific back in 2020 to introduce an eco-friendly recycled plastic debit card. Similarly, Maybank Islamic’s lineup of Ikhwan credit cards are now also created from a sustainable material comprising of 84% bio-sourced and renewable polylactic acid (PLA) – extracted from non-edible corn.

(Source: Free Malaysia Today)

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Alex Cheong Pui Yin

Previously covered recruitment-related stories and had a short stint as a copywriter for the property industry. She subsequently developed an interest in investment and robo-advisors.

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