What to do with your expired credit cards is always a mystery. They will most likely end up sitting in a drawer somewhere with your other old belongings, before eventually making their way to a landfill. But what if you could recycle it efficiently, easily, and safely, no matter what bank you’re in or anywhere in the world?
That’s Mastercard’s hope, as the company announced the launch of its global card recycling program on Wednesday. Mastercard wants to partner with banks to provide collection boxes where you can deposit expired debit and credit cards — even if they weren’t issued by Mastercard — where they’ll be shredded and sent for recycling. The materials from your card, including the chip, will then be separated and melted so that they can be made into new products.
Credit cards may be small, but with about 25 billion cards in circulation today, all that plastic can accumulate when it’s time to throw them away. Every little part that can be recycled helps. Currently, approximately one truckload of plastic is dumped into the ocean every minute, according to the United Nations Environment Program. Plastic waste can harm biodiversity by damaging natural habitats and killing wildlife. In turn, this could negatively affect our ability to prevent climate-related weather events and could harm our food production capabilities. Plastic production also affects the environment by sending polluting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Banks and other financial institutions play a major role when it comes to fighting the climate crisis. In the five years since the 2015 Paris Agreement, the world’s 60 largest banks have financed fossil fuels – the biggest contributor to global warming – to the tune of $3.8 trillion, according to to the 2021 report From nonprofit banking about climate chaos.
Climate experts agree that ending our dependence on fossil fuels is the most important step we can take to tackle climate change, and activists are relying heavily on financial institutions to stop financing oil and gas projects, take their fair share of responsibility for the damage done, and run business more sustainably. Reducing plastic waste is a key part of Mastercard’s strategy to reduce the financial industry’s contribution to the human-caused climate crisis. The company also announced earlier this year that Mastercards must be made from sustainable materials by 2028.
Mastercard hopes to make it easier for you to play your part in this process, by making recycling bins widely available, and the company is inviting every bank in the world to become a partner in its program. The boxes have a shredder that shreds your card when you insert it, and can hold up to 10,000 cards before needing to be emptied.
The first bank to sign up is HSBC in the UK, but banks in the US and elsewhere may follow quickly. Mastercard says it has the infrastructure in place to support card recycling in every region of the world.
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