CUSO PSCU Taps Upcycled Card Group CPI to Lower Plastic Waste

Credit union service organization (CUSO) PSCU is honoring National Recycling Day on Monday (Nov. 15) with a move to reduce plastic waste via a strategic collaboration with ecofriendly card provider CPI Card Group.

CPI’s cards lower the need for first-use plastic by making use of recycled plastic for the card body. The end-to-end payments firm also offers contactless cards, cloud-based instant issuance solutions, and other products and services.

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“It is clear that financial institutions and their cardholders care about the environment and are looking to partners across the industry for help with adopting the mantra of ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,’” Cody Banks, vice president of Payment & Fraud Solutions at PSCU, said in a press release emailed to PYMNTS.

Some 91 percent of debit and credit cardholders have said they are concerned about plastic waste, according to a CPI survey done in conjunction with an independent research firm. The data also showed that 73 percent of respondents think it’s important that their bank behaves in an ecofriendly manner.

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PSCU plans to introduce several ecofriendly card options to its owner credit unions, including CPI’s Earthwise upcycled payment card, which contains up to 85 percent upcycled plastic. CPI’s Second Wave will also be offered and has a core made with recovered ocean-bound plastic. CPI estimates that for every 1 million Second Wave cards produced, more than a ton of plastic will be diverted from oceans, waterways and shorelines.

“Our goal in offering products like Earthwise and Second Wave is to reduce first-use plastic in payment cards, either by diverting plastic waste from entering the world’s oceans or by using post-industrial plastic that might otherwise have entered a landfill,” said Terra Grantham, vice president of Strategy and ESG of CPI.

“We want to lead the payments industry towards reducing first-use plastic in conjunction with delivering a world-class cardholder experience for consumers. With the help of CUSOs like PSCU, we are getting one step closer to driving a meaningful impact towards more eco-focused card products,” Grantham said.