Every year, the global payment card industry produces approximately 6 billion plastic cards. Laid end to end, they would circle the earth more than thirty times. The vast majority are made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a petroleum-derived plastic that takes centuries to decompose. As Africa’s card market grows, with issuance volumes increasing by an estimated 15 to 20 per cent annually across the continent, the environmental implications demand attention. At Cardzgroup Africa, we believe that growth and sustainability are not opposing forces. They are design constraints that make us better manufacturers.
The Problem with Traditional Card Manufacturing
A standard PVC payment card weighs approximately five grams. That seems trivial until you multiply it by millions. South Africa alone issues roughly 80 million active bank cards, representing 400 tonnes of plastic that will eventually enter landfill. The manufacturing process compounds the impact: PVC production involves chlorine chemistry, plasticisers, and energy-intensive lamination. Card personalisation adds chemical-based printing, solvent-based adhesives, and significant energy consumption for the thermal processes involved in chip embedding.
The industry has been slow to address this. Unlike packaging or consumer goods, payment cards are regulated products that must meet strict ISO 7810 and ISO 14443 specifications for durability, flexibility, and electronic performance. You cannot simply swap materials without re-engineering the entire card structure and re-certifying it with Visa, Mastercard, and the chip vendors.
Recycled PVC: The Pragmatic First Step
Our first sustainability initiative focused on the most immediate opportunity: replacing virgin PVC with recycled PVC in our card cores. The core layer, which sits between the printed overlays, represents approximately 60 per cent of a card’s total material weight. By sourcing post-industrial recycled PVC from certified European suppliers, we have reduced virgin plastic consumption by 40 per cent across our standard card programmes since 2022.
Recycled PVC cards are functionally identical to virgin PVC cards. They meet all ISO mechanical and durability requirements, pass the same scheme certification tests, and feel indistinguishable in the hand. The cost premium is modest, approximately 5 to 8 per cent per card at current volumes, and falling as recycled PVC supply chains mature.
Bio-Based PLA Cards: The Next Generation
Polylactic acid (PLA) represents a more fundamental shift. Derived from fermented plant starch, typically maize or sugarcane, PLA is both bio-based and industrially compostable. We began qualifying PLA card substrates in 2023 and have completed successful pilot programmes with two South African banking clients.
PLA cards present genuine engineering challenges. The material has different thermal properties than PVC, requiring adjusted lamination temperatures and dwell times. Its moisture sensitivity demands modified storage and handling protocols. And because PLA is designed to break down, card longevity must be carefully managed. Our current PLA cards are engineered for a three-year lifespan, which aligns with most bank reissuance cycles.
The environmental benefit is significant. A PLA card’s carbon footprint is approximately 60 per cent lower than a virgin PVC card across its lifecycle. At end of life, it can be industrially composted rather than sitting in landfill for generations.
Ocean Plastic: Turning Waste into Value
In partnership with our wider supply chain in Asia, we launched an ocean plastic card initiative in early 2024. The programme sources recovered ocean-bound plastic, material collected within 50 kilometres of coastlines before it reaches the sea, and processes it into card-grade substrate.
Each ocean plastic card contains the equivalent of one recycled plastic bottle. While the volumes are still small, the programme serves a dual purpose: it provides banks with a tangible sustainability story for their customers, and it creates economic incentive for coastal plastic collection in African port cities. We are currently working with collection partners in Durban, Maputo, and Dar es Salaam to build a continent-based supply chain for this material.
Beyond the Card: Factory Operations
Sustainable manufacturing extends well beyond the product itself. Our Cape Town operations and Cardzgroup's production facilities have implemented several operational improvements over the past two years.
- Energy efficiency: LED lighting throughout the facility, variable-speed drives on lamination presses, and optimised production scheduling to reduce idle machine time have cut electricity consumption by 22 per cent per card produced since 2021.
- Waste reduction: Card manufacturing generates edge trim and reject cards. We now recycle 95 per cent of production waste back into non-card PVC products through a partnership with a Gauteng-based recycler.
- Packaging: We replaced expanded polystyrene card trays with moulded recycled cardboard and eliminated individual plastic card sleeves for bulk shipments, reducing packaging waste by approximately 60 per cent.
- Water: Our cleaning and pre-treatment processes have transitioned to closed-loop water systems, reducing fresh water consumption by 35 per cent.
Environmental Management and Carbon Measurement
We have established a formal environmental management framework for setting targets, measuring progress, and continuously improving our environmental performance. As part of this commitment, we completed our first comprehensive carbon footprint assessment covering Scope 1, 2, and upstream Scope 3 emissions.
The results were instructive. Raw material production accounts for approximately 55 per cent of our total carbon footprint, followed by inbound logistics at 20 per cent and factory energy at 15 per cent. This confirms that material innovation, specifically the shift away from virgin PVC, delivers the greatest environmental return on investment.
The Road Ahead
Sustainability in card manufacturing is not a destination; it is a direction. We have set targets to achieve 70 per cent recycled or bio-based material content across all card programmes by 2026, and to reach carbon neutrality in our factory operations by 2028. These are ambitious goals, but the trajectory is clear. African banks increasingly require sustainability credentials from their suppliers, and their customers increasingly expect it. We intend to lead, not follow, in meeting that demand.