Pollution and Credit card companies

We all get far too much mail, especially from
financial services companies. Credit card
companies alone send billions of pieces of paper
mail each year, and most of that gets thrown right
into the trash can. Not only does this dynamic pose
a threat from a fraud perspective – trash cans and
mailboxes can be treasure troves for opportunistic
fraudsters – but you have to figure the effect on the
environment isn’t great either.
Paper products aren’t as bad as most materials,
according to North Carolina State University
Professor Richard Venditti, because they’re
renewable, recyclable and biodegradable and they
motivate land owners to plant trees.  However,
Venditti says, “inefficient use of paper does
consume resources and have an impact on the
environment.”
While credit card direct mail is on the rise after
hitting a two-year low in April 2012, long-term
trends suggest a declining role for traditional paper
mail in the years to come. Not only are financial
services companies increasingly offering paperless
options to their account holders – even charging
extra for paper statements, but they’re also learning
how to better leverage digital means for marketing
purposes. These changes are largely based on the
shifting preferences of the modern consumer as
well as the overall technicalization of modern
commerce – not some newfound corporate altruism
– but does it really matter?
Unfortunately, wasted paper may not be the only
environmental concern tied to credit cards. There
are roughly 1.2 billion credit cards in circulation in
the United States alone, and they expire or get lost
all the time.  What effect does that have on the
environment?
“In the US, around 30 million tons or 60 billion
pounds of plastics are discarded annually, with only
around 7% of them recycled,” Dr. Samantha
MacBride, assistant professor at Baruch College
and former deputy director for recycling at the New
York City Department of Sanitation, told CardHub.
The effect of credit cards on the environment, she
says, pales in comparison to that of plastic bags,
containers, toys, and personal hygiene products.
It all adds up, though. And if you were to add all of
the credit cards in circulation on top of one another
– like stack them up – you would get a mountain
as high as 13 Mount Everests.
As a result, with consumers becoming more
environmentally focused, credit card issuers are
increasingly using their cards’ basic materials as a
point of differentiation. Chase’s Sapphire Preferred
Card is made of metal, for example, and when it
expires the company will send you an envelope so
that you can return it for safe disposal. The
American Express Centurion Card is made from
titanium, and the Visa Black Card is made of
carbon.  “Biodegradable” is a word you often hear
bandied about in this regard as well.
There are a couple of major reasons why you
should ignore such gimmicks.
Biodegradable may not really mean biodegradable
at the end of the day.  How such terms are defined
and the manner in which they are used in
advertising has garnered a great deal of legal
scrutiny in recent years.  Perhaps that is why
Discover no longer offers its so-called
biodegradable Green Credit Card.
“The bulk of a credit card can be biodegradable, if
produced from polymers derived from plants,”
Venditti says.  “The magnetic stripes and other
metallic inks on the other hand, may not be
biodegradable portions.”
What’s more, the plastic or metal from which your
credit card is made will not save you any money.
Nor will the picture on the front of your card or any
other cosmetic feature. The rates, rewards and
fees associated with your card are all that matter.
And the more money you save yourself via
attractive credit card terms, the more you can
donate to an environmental charity – if efficiently
helping the environment is your ultimate goal.
Either way, the intersection of the mobile
advancements and increased consumer awareness
will undoubtedly lead to a smaller footprint from the
financial services industry in the years to come.
For now, however, there is still a great deal of work
to be done.