Santander launches in-branch card recycling scheme

• Santander has launched a pilot scheme across 28 UK branches, allowing expired and unused plastic credit and debit cards to be recycled.  
• First UK bank to trial plastic recycling machines in its branches, which will be available for public use.

Santander has introduced a pilot card recycling scheme in selected UK branches allowing the public to recycle expired or unused plastic cards such as debit and credit cards. The bank is the first in the UK to provide plastic recycling machines in its branches.  

The specialised self-service machines allow people to shred their unwanted cards into over a hundred pieces, so they can have peace of mind they are securely disposed of. The cards are recycled into plastic pellets ready to be re-used. The pilot is expected to last up to six months, before next steps are confirmed. 

Credit and debit cards are typically comprised of several layers of laminated plastic, metal oxide particles, solvents, inks and a magnetic strip,⁽¹⁾ which makes them particularly complex to recycle. As such they can end up in landfill and take hundreds of years to break down. 

Fermín Martínez de Hurtado Yela, Head of Sustainability & Responsible Banking at Santander UK, commented: “Bank cards are traditionally very difficult to recycle. With 92 million debit cards and 60 million credit cards currently in UK circulation⁽²⁾, it is a significant challenge and one that we want to play our part in helping.” 

Last year, Banco Santander⁽³⁾ announced that by 2025, all debit and credit cards in the UK, Spain, Portugal and Poland will be made from sustainable materials. This progress is in line with the Group's commitment to achieve zero net carbon emissions by 2050 to support the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change⁽⁴⁾.

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Notes to Editors 
1)    Anatomy of a credit card: What does each part mean? What are the parts of a credit card? (santander.com)
2)    UK Finance - Card Spending update for June 2022: Card Spending Update - June 2022.pdf (ukfinance.org.uk) 
3)    Santander accelerates the rollout of eco-friendly cards in Europe to support the bank’s green transition: Santander accelerates the rollout of eco-friendly cards in Europe to support the bank’s green transition
4)    More information on Santander Group’s journey to ‘Net Zero’: Ana Botín: Our journey to ‘Net zero’ (santander.com) 
 

A full list of participating branches: