Nationwide Building Society is to issue 'eco-friendly' debit and credit cards made from recycled plastic - which aims to save 35 tonnes of carbon emissions a year.
The provider, which issues 5.4 million cards annually, said it is the first major UK bank or building society to take such a step.
Nationwide, which is the UK’s largest building society, has pledged to eliminate single-use plastics by 2025.
When will the new cards be rolled out?
The new cards made from recycled PVC materials will be rolled out from next spring.
They will be issued to current account members first, before being rolled out across Nationwide’s product range.
The Society said the move is part of a wide focus on sustainability.
What have Nationwide Building Society said about the move?
Claire Tracey, chief strategy and sustainability officer at Nationwide Building Society, said: “We’re proud to be the first high street lender in the UK to offer cards made from recycled plastics. Our members tell us that, despite the tough times right now, they still want to make the world a greener place.
“Earlier this year we became carbon neutral for energy and emissions for all internal operations and Society vehicles.
"We’ve also set aside £1 billion for our members to borrow at a special low interest rate if they want to make their homes greener.
"Today’s news is another step for us in helping the UK to achieve net-zero by 2050 and a significant step in us eliminating single-use plastics by 2025.”
What do Nationwide do with expired cards for customers?
Nationwide currently offers customers an in-branch recycling service for expired cards.
The new “eco-friendly” cards will be produced in partnership with payment cards supplier Idemia.
Amanda Gourbault from Idemia said: “We’re proud to be a long-term partner of Nationwide Building Society and delighted to support the Society’s sustainability goals through the recycled plastics payment card, which is manufactured from sustainable resources and significantly reduces plastic waste.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article