Mastercard has launched a global initiative to recycle credit and debit cards, aiming to prevent the billions of cards in circulation from ending up in landfills.
The payments company has partnered with HSBC to pilot the project in eight UK branches, with plans for other banks worldwide to join the programme and help create economies of scale.
Mastercard will provide shredding machines to HSBC, capable of holding 10,000 cards each, which will then be transferred to a plastic recycling facility.
The pilot will run for six months, during which customers can recycle any plastic card, including those from competitors.
The initiative comes as plastic use continues to pose a major environmental challenge, with plastic waste polluting oceans and rivers, and greenhouse gas emissions from the manufacturing process contributing to climate change.
