Recycling Mystery: Gift Cards

"During the holiday season, you'll likely be giving and receiving loads of gift cards for your favorite shops, restaurants, and online retailers, but can these cards be recycled once the money is gone? Tossing a single gift card in the trash may not seem like a big deal, but these small bits of polyvinyl chloride (commonly known as PVC, the plastic resin used to make gift cards and other household items like CD cases) can really add up."

"Nearly 30 billion plastic cards are produced annually, according to the International Card Manufacturers Association. In the United States alone, approximately 10 billion gift cards are sold annually, generating an estimated 50,700 tons of plastic waste. Manufacturing PVC gift cards also generates more than 40,000 tons of CO2 annually. Retailers, consumer brands, and online services offer gift cards as an alternative to gifts that might be returned."

Holiday gift-card production and disposal create significant plastic waste and greenhouse-gas emissions. Nearly 30 billion plastic cards are produced globally each year, with about 10 billion sold in the United States generating roughly 50,700 tons of plastic waste and over 40,000 tons of CO2 from manufacturing. More than 70% of gift cards are used and discarded within six months, and PVC can take up to 500 years to decompose. Discarded cards fragment into microplastics that contaminate food, water, and human bodies; incinerating PVC releases dioxins. Approximately $23 billion in U.S. gift cards go unused annually, and 47% of adults hold at least one unredeemed card. PVC gift cards are rarely accepted in curbside recycling, and confusion about where and how to recycle them leads to contamination of recycling streams.

Read at Earth911