Make change for good and work with us to reduce your use of plastic by switching to sustainable, paper based card technology, manufactured in New Zealand.
envirocard presents an opportunity for business to embrace sustainable practice in card manufacturing and printing. It’s a positive story to tell and will bolster your sustainability credentials. People expect companies to drive social and environmental change and they will support those seen as making this change.
envirocard is an accessible tool for organizations to show they care for their consumer, community and planet. It enables us all to feel good about using a card product that does not mindlessly end up in landfill.
If your company is using plastic based cards, envirocard should be a must have business decision to help achieve your company’s sustainability goals.
Swap plastic for paper-based card product.
Merchandising.
Hang cells, Wallets, Display Units
- Card display backers
- No glue, but use of die cuts to hold cards in place
- Detachable hang cell strip at top
- Fold into wallet with personalized greeting area on reverse
- Cards and backers sourced from sustainable forests and all elements recyclable
- Cost effective alternative
- Card based wallets for b2b sales also available
- Card based display units to showcase your envirocards
Envirocard FAQ’s
Where did the idea for an envirocard come about?
Like a lot of good ideas, the idea came from feedback from customers asking the question, ‘Is there a better way’?
After much hard work to develop a manufacturing process, build a machine and develop the product, envirocard was born.
How does it work?
Envirocard’s work just like any other gift or pre paid card. They contain a magnetic stripe, which is where the smarts of any gift card enable the look up between the terminal the card is being swiped through to facilitate a transaction, through to where the funds are held and then allowing the funds to be passed from the card to the retailer via a transaction switch.
In terms of the envirocard product, it is created from sustainably grown FSC approved forests and manufactured into paper based card stock. The magnetic data stripe is handled the same way as adhesive tape is on standard cardboard recycling materials. At end of life it goes into the recycle bin, not the rubbish bin, like limited use plastic gift cards.
Also, companies running existing gift card programmes through their current partners, can still keep their programmes their, but specify that they will purchase envirocard rather than plastic and supply those for distribution.
Companies supply their artwork for branding and production, or we can do this for them. This is applied in the production process and shipped to the customer.
Why should retailers swap plastic for paper-based cards?
Most organizations have sustainability or environmental goal of some sort to reduce waste, increase efficiency or utilize products that have greater sustainability credentials than the ones they currently use. This is the case for envirocards really.
Retailers can make change for good and reduce their use of plastic by switching to sustainable, paper based card technology, manufactured right here in New Zealand.
Increasingly, consumers of all products and gift cards are no exception, are demanding a more sustainable option. Younger consumers in particular are worried about the planet and will vote with their wallets when it comes to purchasing products that are seen as fitting their values. Consumers also expect companies to play their part in driving social and environmental change and they will support those companies.
How have the cards been received so far?
Envirocard is a relatively new product. We have both large retailers using them and also smaller companies setting up gift card programmes from scratch opting for envirocard over plastic PVC cards. It’s a no brainer for them.
Consumers are not really aware of the difference between plastic and paper-based cards, due to the production process and they have been received really well, especially when they know they cards have replaced plastic waste and are recyclable
Challenges in the production and distribution of the cards?
A big challenge has been refining the production process to be more environmentally beneficial than the production of traditional plastic cards and the backers they are often attached to, which are single use and really only of benefit to the retailers for merchandising the product.
In refining production process, the envirocard team estimate that the annual production of around 15 million cards equates to using approximately 75 tones of PVC. If you add in production waste that would be over 100 tones a year of plastic that can be eliminated using envirocard paper card based technology.
There is also a huge difference in power usage in the manufacture of envirocard compared to PVC cards. The laminating process for envirocard is cold – as opposed to the hot laminating process for PVC at over 130 degrees.
In terms of distribution, we have also created paper card based backers, with ‘Mexican hat’ style slots for merchandising on prongs. The cards then are not glued, but use pre cut slots for placing on the backers and presented on existing stands. This is a great innovation for retailers, as it enables them to truly use envirocard’s in a retail setting, just like they have done with plastic cards previously. In addition, envirocard have card wallets that customers can order and have branded. These certainly make personalization of cards for b2b usage a really complete and well presented product.
The big benefit to brands is that they can make a difference to what they are doing in terms of making change for good in executing their sustainability strategy.
They feel good, consumers feel good an envirocard is way better for the planet. Why wouldn’t you swap out plastic for paper based gift and pre paid cards?
To learn more about environcard or to arrange
a discussion contact eCard Solutions
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