Biodegradable credit card launched in Austria

An Austrian bank is now offering its customers a bank card made out of corn that is biodegradable once it is finished with.

The idea is part of an environmental initiative by the Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI) which includes not only biodegradable card but also packaging in which it is sent which is also biodegradable.

The card is available from this month in a special limited edition for 6,000 Austrian customers and it is a product made out of Bio-Polymer refined from corn starch.

The bank worked together with credit card firms to finalise the product which once left out in the open in a landfill site would have broken down within a few months.

Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG director Dr. Johannes Schuster said: “The Raiffeisen climate protection initiative has been working for five years to strengthen environmental initiatives and this is our latest move in this direction with a newly developed easily compostable credit card.”