Biodegradable and environmentally friendly payment card products for financial institutions
are gaining momentum thanks to the new Smart Eco range from Oberthur Technologies.
Oberthur Technologies, an industry leader in innovation and new product development, is
deploying Smart Eco, a range of cards providing environmentally friendly alternatives to
PVC. Four different materials are introduced as part of the range, each with different
environmental credentials in order to take into account the different needs of issuers, but all
providing viable eco friendly alternatives to PVC.
The Smart Eco range consists of:
Smart Eco PET-G cards provide a chlorine-free option for standard banking cards.
PET-G offers good card shaping properties and is excellent for chip embedding,
providing an ideal alternative to PVC for financial cards.
Smart Eco Recycled PVC cards are manufactured using recycled PVC. RecycledPVC is considered to have the same properties as virgin PVC in terms of lamination,
ink adhesion and shelf life, while it minimizes the use of natural resources.
Smart Eco PLA cards are made from a fully synthetic polymer derived from corn starch, a renewable material. Fully biodegradable and compostable, the Smart Eco
PLA card is ideal for gift and commercial applications.
Smart Eco BioPVC cards display very similar properties to standard PVC butcontain additives that help break down the PVC polymers at a much faster rate than
normal. Under the right conditions, BioPVC will biodegrade over a period of up to five
years.
In addition to the Smart Eco range dedicated to financial institutions, Oberthur Technologies
also offers environmentally friendly SIM cards and packaging solutions as part of its portfolio.
Oberthur Technologies already produces several million PET-G banking cards each year for
customers around the world, including Swedbank, the leading bank in Sweden and in the
Baltic region.
”For Swedbank environmental responsibility has been a key issue for years and we try to
integrate our structured environmental work into all our operations, including the issuing of
cards. Swedbank is the first and the only listed bank in the Nordic region to hold ISO 14001
certification, a fact that regulate the choice of materials” comments Mårten Hallén, Head of
Products at Swedbank.
“Through our relationship with Oberthur Technologies we ensure that environmental issues
are integrated in the card production process. Our customers are therefore offered PET-G
banking cards with a symbol on the backside informing about the material. Nearly 100 % of
our card portfolio is produced in PET-G, a material which we find suitable for our cards due
to strength and durability.”
“Developing ‘eco-friendly’ products has been a priority for the payment card industry, and the
arrival of new environmentally friendly materials are creating new avenues for payment
cards” comments Frederic Chevreton, General Manager of the Payment Product Line, Card
Systems Division at Oberthur Technologies, “The Smart Eco range from Oberthur
Technologies gives issuers an opportunity to go further in minimizing the impact of payment
cards on the environment.”
Samples from the Smart Eco range will be available at the Oberthur Technologies stand at
CARTES & IDentification 2009.