Bank of Ireland launches brand new bio-sourced Visa Debit Card made from field corn
Bank of Ireland Introduced Bio-Sourced Cards. Source: Bank of Ireland
The new bio-sourced Visa Debit Card from the Bank of Ireland (BoI) is made of 84% renewable materials such as field corn. Unlike typical plastic cards, the new product decomposes about six months after the expiry date.
Since 2020, the card was available to third-level students under BoI’s Student Loan program. However, the bank expects to switch the whole portfolio of cards to bio-sourced ones by 2026.
It is predicted that the Bank of Ireland will save 17 tonnes of CO2 and 4.48 tonnes of plastic (about 160,000 500ml plastic bottles) annually.
Besides, the switch to bio-degradable is only part of the planned design changes. Other innovations include flat-printed numbers, increased font size, customer card details moved from the front to the back of the card, and a blind notch on the bottom right of the card to help people insert it into a card machine or ATM.
Furthermore, a new modern design will be unique for each customer segment (personal / business, debit card/credit card) to easier identify the cards in their wallet.
The bank will provide bio-sourced cards to all new customers, as well as existing customers as their old cards expire, get damaged, lost or stolen.
