Handling Your Wallet Waste
The “Company Profile” is an Earth911.com series highlighting consumer goods and services making a difference through product stewardship and recycling. Products and services featured do not pay for placement and are not endorsed by Earth911.com.
Take a quick look through your wallet. You’ve got ID cards, credit cards, gift cards and maybe even old hotel key cards you kept after check-out. Most of these cards have one thing in common: they’re made of a plastic resin called polyvinyl chloride (PVC) that is infinitely recyclable, but often landfilled.
The presence of magnetic strips made recycling of these cards a challenge in the past. But Cleveland-based Earthworks System began accepting the cards from consumers and retailers last year, and converts them into 100 percent recycled PVC cards. Earth911 talked with Earthworks’ President Rodd Gilbert to learn more.
Back to the Basics
Let’s start off by pointing out that Gilbert has been dealing with plastics for 20 years, so he knows the industry well. He recognized that plastic cards equate to 75 million pounds of PVC waste each year, even though new cards could be made from recycled material.
Earthworks collects cards through partnerships with retailers, and consumers can also mail in their old cards for free recycling (you just have to pay the postage). The cards are then chopped up and melted into a sheet of PVC, with no chemicals or extra plastic added. Manufacturers then purchase these sheets to create new cards.
Determining The Market
Instead of listing off what kinds of cards are accepted, it’s much quicker to say what isn’t accepted. Earthworks does not accept cards with scratch-off labels or holograms, or cards made from non-PVC material (such as bioplastics).
“We’re trying to educate the industry on what makes these cards recyclable,” says Gilbert. “We get a fair number of cards that we can’t recycle, so we always encourage consumers to let their favorite stores know they want gift cards made of recycled content.”
So how do you know if your plastic cards are made of recycled PVC? Earthworks puts its name on the back of any of its recycled cards, which is already in the millions.
Assessing Eco-Impact
PVC has been a hot topic of discussion over its possible health effects, specifically the use of additives to soften the plastic. But Gilbert is quick to point out that PVC recycling does not require the additives used in other plastic recycling (like plastic bottles), and because the properties of PVC remain constant, it can be recycled continually.
He also cautions consumers to be careful about “biodegradable” cards, since additions like magnetic strips will not biodegrade.
The Ups and Downs
Gilbert enjoys dealing with people who see the value of recycling gift cards, including consumers who mail them in. “I’ve had people send me 200 cards in a box,” he said. “I also get calls from schools and churches that want to participate.”
But like any business, it does come with challenges. “It’s tough getting clean feedstock, and we’re exploring methods to use the cards we receive that aren’t recyclable.”
A Man of All Rs
Asked to pick his favorite of the three” Rs,” Gilbert sees the importance of all three.
“It’s important to me that we reduce the amount of what is made,” he says. “But I see a lot of value in reuse and recycling as well, which is why we encourage the take-back of cards in the first place.”
So while you’re out spending those gift cards you received for holiday presents or activating your new credit cards, keep in mind that plastic cards don’t need to end up in a landfill . . . anymore.
JC Dealy
posted on January 13th, 2009 at 11:17 am
Think.
Since PVC is practically indestructible and virtually recyclable forever, why front load the process?
Would it not make more sense to mine the stuff at a future date from a singular collection point? Mining dumps will very likely be viable in the future, and far more efficient then investing (wasting all the energy) on the front end of the process.
Of course we may not get the immediate gratification of feeling that we are greening the world. However, in time it will be far more efficient to deal with the consolidated material later, all at once.
Think. Your feeling is killing the planet.
Anthropogenicagent.
Harmony
posted on January 13th, 2009 at 11:56 am
Great article, Trey ~ but “Where’s the beef?” We need to know WHERE to mail our spent cards for recycling, and WHERE to suggest retailers buy recycled cards! Help us take action! THANKS (:
Raquel Fagan
posted on January 14th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Hey Harmony,
Thanks for catching our oversight. We added a link into the story. You can also find the info in our Earth911.com recycling database. Thanks, and happy recycling!
Barbara Canney
posted on January 21st, 2009 at 11:18 am
Not to be negative because this sounds like a great program but I would be hesitant to mail off all my identification like that. Expired or not, the numbers still follow the card. How can you make me or anyone comfortable with this?
MPA
posted on January 23rd, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Do they accept shredded cards if they are made of PVC?
Jeffrey
posted on January 27th, 2009 at 10:55 am
JC Dealy,
I’m not sure I understand you correctly, but what you’re saying is, not recycle, use everything we have until nothing is left, and then go back to the dumps and recycle that material. Pardon me, but that doesn’t make any sense at all. The purpose of recycling is to reuse things, reduce what we have to take from whatever source. That way it stays were nature intended it to. So we don’t have to rip apart the landscape, the earth, or whatever to get at what we want. Just use what we have already taken, reuse, reuse, reuse that way it’s there if we ever really need it. Huh?..
TriskelionAZ
posted on June 10th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
I aggree with DC Dealy. That is a very good idea. If only your words would get to the right people maybe this can happen.
Jeffrey:
No. He meant putting the PVC in a storage area where it will not seep any chemicals into the ground and after it piles up we can reuse that PVC to create other products.
Thereby recycling.