Circularity is increasingly shaping how organisations think about the lifecycle of the products they create, from the materials used through to what happens at the end of their first life. From a regulatory standpoint, the EU is reinforcing this shift through the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, which now applies across the EU and sets requirements around packaging recyclability, with recycled-content targets for plastic packaging in 2030 and 2040.
Payment cards, however, are rarely central to this conversation. To a consumer, expiry might simply mean cutting up an old card, throwing it away and moving on to the replacement. For banks, this creates an opportunity to think differently and give customers a visible way to participate in a card-focused recycling programme. Expiry does not necessarily have to mark the end of a card's useful life.
Designing for the whole card lifecycle
The payments sector has already begun to rethink the materials used at the start of a card's life. From January 2028, newly produced Mastercard plastic payment cards will be made from material such as recycled or bio-sourced plastics, including rPVC, rPET and PLA.
Extending the range of materials is important, but issuers also need a plan for what happens when a card reaches the end of its working life. That plan has to fit the way customers already bank.
A branch collection box may work well for customers who still visit in person. An ATM can act as another return point by retaining an expired card. For customers who rarely visit a branch, secure postal returns may be more practical. Other issuers may use partners to collect cards at agreed locations.
There is no universal model. A large retail bank with an extensive branch network has different options from a digital bank.
The process needs to ask as little as possible of the customer. If returning an expired card feels like an extra task, participation is likely to suffer. Banks can instead connect recycling with the replacement process, using the moment a new card is issued to explain how the old one can be returned.
How to safeguard the recycling system
Security can also have an impact on the recycling process. A payment card is not ordinary plastic. It contains a chip and contactless antenna, while the card itself carries personalised information. Returned cards should be handled securely. Depending on the recycling process, this can involve secure destruction before the materials are recovered.
This is where specialist support becomes important. The bank owns the relationship with the cardholder, but it may not have the recycling network or equipment needed to handle expired cards at scale. A specialist partner can manage the secure collection and destruction of expired cards, before separating and processing recoverable materials through appropriate recycling routes. G+D's card recycling service, for example, covers the process from customer return to secure recycling, with certificates that trace the recovered material.
Banks can also tell customers what happened to their card. CaixaBank says that since 2024 more than half a million customers have received notifications telling them that expired or unused cards have been recycled. It is a small step, but it answers an important customer question: what happened after the customer handed the card back?
Where the recovered plastic goes
The end product can make that answer clearer. CaixaBank has collected expired cards for recycling since 2019 and says it has now recycled 4.6 million cards. In 2026, the bank began installing benches made from recovered card plastic in rural communities in Ávila, Spain. The first forty benches are going into villages served by its mobile banking service where, according to CaixaBank, waiting facilities are needed.
Closer to home, Santander UK is trialling card recycling in selected branches. Its manual shredders cut old cards into more than one hundred pieces before the material is sent through existing collection routes to a recycling partner. There, metal components are removed, and the plastic is turned into pellets for reuse. The trial accepts plastic cards regardless of issuer and customers do not need to bank with Santander to use it.
These examples give customers a simple answer to what happened to an old card. Not every programme needs such a visible end product, though. Recovered plastic can become raw material for other products. Banks should be able to trace where the material went and explain that route plainly.
From expiry to second life
A payment card may be small, but millions are issued and eventually expire. Considering what happens at that final stage gives banks another way to make circularity part of an existing customer process. From returning a card through a recycling box or ATM to seeing recovered material used for something new, the process gives an everyday action a tangible outcome. Making that work requires end-of-life programmes that are secure, convenient for customers and supported by the right specialist partners.
A card nearing its expiry can therefore become more than a point at which one card is replaced by another. With the right processes in place, banks can give customers a practical way to return expired cards, recover materials that might otherwise be discarded and support their use in new products.