MasterCard recently announced that it will eliminate native PVC plastic from its body card production process by 2028.

MasterCard stated that starting from January 1, 2028, all newly manufactured MasterCard plastic cards will be made of renewable materials, including recycled polyvinyl chloride (rPVC) and recycled polyethylene (rPE). In addition, the company plans to provide technical support to partners and card issuers to phase out native PVC plastics.

Mastercard launched the sustainable development physical card program from 2018, and has launched more than 168 million physical cards made of recycled materials and biological materials with the help of more than 330 card issuers in 80 countries and regions around the world.

In mid June, MasterCard launched a global project to recycle credit and debit cards. The plan will first provide HSBC with card shredders, each capable of holding 10000 cards, equivalent to 110 pounds of plastic (IT Home note: approximately 50 kilograms). Once the card shredder is filled, MasterCard will be responsible for transferring these waste cards to the plastic recycling facility.

MasterCard stated that this project will be piloted for six months, allowing bank customers to recycle any plastic cards, including cards from MasterCard competitors such as VISA.

MasterCard stated that its current circulation of cards is approximately 3.1 billion, and it is estimated that the banking industry produces approximately 600 million cards annually, with each card having a lifespan of approximately five years.

A previous report by research firm Nielsen showed that the total number of global circulation cards was close to 26 billion in 2022, and predicted that it could increase to 28.4 billion by 2027.