The problem
G+D’s own Convego Beyond material puts two numbers on the page: 85% of the waste in the oceans is plastic, and 91% of the world’s plastic is not recycled. Payment cards are a small but highly visible part of that story. Billions are produced every year, mostly from PVC, a durable plastic that is rarely recovered once a card is laminated with a chip, antenna, magnetic stripe and hologram.
By the late 2010s many banks wanted a greener card, but early recycled options were partial. G+D notes that most recycled cards then on the market were composed of 85% recycled material, with first-use PVC making up the rest. Plant-based alternatives existed, yet some issuers worried about cost and long-term durability. The industry needed a card that behaved exactly like PVC but did not require new fossil plastic.
The product
Convego Recycled is G+D’s answer. According to the company’s product brochure, it is the first card body on the market in which 100% of the plastic content consists of recycled PVC. The exceptions are the parts that are not part of the body: the microchip, antenna, contact plate, magnetic stripe, signature panel and payment scheme hologram (G+D brochure).
G+D consolidated its environmentally friendly cards under the Convego Beyond brand in 2020 (G+D Spotlight). The range now includes:
- Convego Recycled: 100% rPVC body, also available with coloured cores and a metal-effect finish.
- Convego Natural: a bio-based card body made from plant material that is industrially compostable. G+D says it saves 65% of energy and 68% of greenhouse gas emissions compared with conventional card production. HypoVereinsbank in Germany chose it for plastic-free debit cards.
- Convego Parley Ocean: cards made with plastic collected from oceans and coastal areas through a partnership with Parley for the Oceans, a partner since 2020.
- Services: print-on-demand carriers, recycled paper, digital PIN delivery through Convego ePIN, and card recycling programmes.
How it works
The recycled PVC comes from post-industrial waste collected from licensed companies. Instead of producing more virgin PVC, that material is cleaned, processed and turned back into card-grade sheets. G+D’s brochure states that reusing discarded PVC in this way reduces the material’s CO2 footprint by 61% compared with making new PVC.
From there, the process mirrors a standard card. The rPVC core is printed, laminated with transparent overlays, milled for the chip module and fitted with an antenna for contactless use. G+D says independent ISO testing has shown that Convego Recycled has a lifespan similar to traditional PVC cards, so banks do not have to reissue cards more often. The card can itself be recycled again, depending on local recycling systems, which is where G+D’s take-back work comes in.
In June 2021 Mastercard and G+D announced a programme to help people recycle their cards, offering issuers a toolbox of recycling solutions adapted to their market and materials (G+D press release, 2 June 2021). One result is G+D’s partnership with Santander that turns expired payment cards into community furniture, which won the Consumer Banking category at the FF Awards in London on 25 November 2025.
Timeline
| Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1852 | Giesecke & Devrient founded in Leipzig |
| 2018 | Mastercard forms the Greener Payments Partnership with Gemalto, G+D and IDEMIA |
| 2020 | G+D groups its sustainable cards under Convego Beyond; partnership with Parley for the Oceans begins |
| January 2021 | BBVA starts sending 100% rPVC cards to customers in Portugal |
| 2 June 2021 | Mastercard and G+D announce a card recycling programme alongside Mastercard’s sustainable card badge |
| 10 June 2021 | G+D announces it is supplying BBVA in Spain with cards made of 100% recycled PVC layers |
| 25 November 2025 | G+D and Santander card-to-furniture recycling project wins at the FF Awards, London |
Impact and numbers
- Recycled content: 100% of the plastic in the card body is rPVC, compared with around 85% in most earlier recycled cards, according to G+D.
- Material footprint: recycled PVC reduces the CO2 footprint of the material by 61% versus producing virgin PVC, per the Convego Recycled brochure.
- Bank adoption: BBVA called itself the first bank in Spain to issue cards made of 100% recycled PVC, after starting in Portugal in January 2021 and planning Mexico for the following year (G+D, 10 June 2021).
- Industry reach: when the recycling programme launched in 2021, more than 100 financial institutions in over 30 countries were offering Mastercard sustainable card programmes.
- Company scale: G+D reported turnover of €2.31 billion and around 11,500 employees in fiscal 2020.
Honest caveats. A 61% cut applies to the plastic material, not the whole card. The chip, antenna, energy in production, packaging and shipping all add to the footprint. Post-industrial rPVC also keeps PVC in circulation rather than replacing it, so it does not settle the wider debate about PVC additives that the European Chemicals Agency flagged in November 2023. The compostable Convego Natural card needs industrial composting conditions, and a card with a chip should never be put in a home compost bin.
What’s next
G+D says it was the first in the payment industry to commit to replacing virgin plastic in all the payment card bodies it produces by 2030 (G+D sustainability). Meeting that target means moving every programme, including low-cost mass-market debit cards, to recycled, bio-based or ocean-sourced bodies within a few years. The next frontier is end of life: collection schemes that actually get old cards back, and recycling routes that separate metals from plastics. In the EU, Directive (EU) 2024/825 now restricts generic environmental claims, so banks advertising a “green card” need certified data, such as Mastercard’s Card Eco-Certification, to back it up.
Why it matters for Europe / green buyers
Convego Recycled shows how an old European industrial firm, one that also prints banknotes, turned a commodity product into a circular one without asking customers to change anything. The card looks, feels and works the same. That matters because the biggest barrier to greener finance hardware has never been technology, but the risk-averse procurement habits of banks.
For buyers, the lesson is to look past the headline material. Ask what share of the body is recycled, whether the feedstock is post-industrial or post-consumer, and whether the supplier offers take-back. Prefer suppliers with a dated phase-out commitment, like G+D’s 2030 pledge, because that turns a product option into a supply chain obligation.
Sources & image credits
- G+D, Convego Beyond sustainable payment cards page (accessed 6 October 2026): https://www.gi-de.com/en/financial-platforms/payment-technology/smart-cards/convego-beyond
- G+D, Convego Recycled brochure: https://www.gi-de.com/corporate/Financial_Platforms/Payment_Technology/Smart_Cards/Convego_Beyond/Brochure_G_D_Convego_Recycled.pdf
- G+D, “Giesecke+Devrient supplies BBVA its new sustainable cards made of 100% recycled PVC”, 10/11 June 2021: https://www.gi-de.com/en/group/press/press-releases/giesecke-devrient-supplies-bbva-its-new-sustainable-cards-made-of-100-recycled-pvc
- G+D Spotlight, “Sustainable payment cards made from recycled plastic”, 31 March 2021: https://www.gi-de.com/en/spotlight/technology-talk/sustainable-payment-cards
- G+D, “Mastercard empowers consumers to choose a sustainable future with eco-friendly cards”, 2 June 2021: https://www.gi-de.com/en/group/press/press-releases/mastercard-empowers-consumers-to-choose-a-sustainable-future-with-eco-friendly-cards
- G+D, “Reducing our ecological footprint” (2030 virgin plastic commitment): https://www.gi-de.com/en/about-us/sustainability/environment
- ECHA, “ECHA identifies risks from PVC additives and microparticle releases”, November 2023: https://echa.europa.eu/-/echa-identifies-risks-from-pvc-additives-and-microparticle-releases
- Directive (EU) 2024/825: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2024/825/oj
Images:
- “Headquarter of Giesecke+Devrient in Munich 01” by SchmiAlf, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0), via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Headquarter_of_Giesecke%2BDevrient_in_Munich_01.jpg
