In the United Kingdom, Thames Card Technology will soon be supplying gift, membership, loyalty, and hotel key cards made with partially renewable content and developed by Nu:Agencies.
Nu:Agencies has already rolled out its cards in the United States, mostly in the hotel market. They are manufacturered using a chalk-based substrate made from reclaimed and renewable materials and polyethylene. The process uses less energy and doesn’t need water, acid, alkaline or bleach. It is manufactured at sites in Taiwan and China.
TCT managing director Paul Underwood, calls the material a “true alternative” to polyvinyl chloride and does not increase costs. “We very much see this material as a really credible option for customers that are looking for an alternative to PVC and want an eco-friendly solution,” he adds. “The beauty of this material is that it allows us, as a high-volume plastic card manufacturer, to use exactly the same equipment and settings as we already do on traditional PVC cards, so we will continue to print lithographically and screen print and finish with the holograms, for example, that we currently do. We don’t have to change our processes at all.”
Underwood adds that initial sales focus would in the retail and hotel markets, with an eventual push into banking. “It is our plan to eventually gain accreditation to offer these to the banking sector but with the higher technology involved such as the chip and pin and dual interface properties embedded within them, there are a number of levels of certification the card has to go through before we can offer it to that market.”