This is part of our strategy to reduce our carbon emissions and achieve net zero in our operations and supply chain by 2030 or sooner.
All cards we issue – including HSBC debit, credit, and commercial cards – are now made from 85% recycled plastic. As a next step, we’re planning to move to cards made from 100% recycled plastic.
We’ll only replace your card when it naturally expires or is lost, stolen, or damaged.
Conventional payment cards are made from polyvinyl chloride acetate (PVC).
Managing the industrial waste produced from this material is challenging. Across the world, it’s estimated that roughly 6 billion plastic payment cards are produced every year.
Recycled PVC plastic (rPVC) has the same durability and expiry date (5 years) as the previous PVC product. However, it’s considered to be less harmful to the planet as it uses raw materials (from manufacturing industry waste) that would otherwise be incinerated or sent to landfill.
So, switching to rPVC can help reduce plastic waste.
The transition to rPVC throughout the card production process is expected to reduce our CO2 emissions by 161 tonnes a year, according to the cards’ manufacturer, IDEMIA.
Each card will also reduce plastic waste – 73 tonnes a year in total.
These figures are based on the current volume of cards we issue globally in a year (23 million).
All our cards now include accessibility features as standard to support people living with dementia, visual impairments, learning difficulties, dyslexia, and colour blindness.
The accessible features include:
From using less plastic to saving energy and reducing waste, more of us are changing our habits and making more conscious decisions.
Small changes can add up – not only to benefit the environment but to save you money too.
Today we finance a number of industries that significantly contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. We have a strategy to help our customers to reduce their emissions and to reduce our own. For more information visit www.hsbc.com/sustainability.
This article was last updated: 07/02/2024, 08:33
