Who cares if an ATM card is not made of plastic? Maybe rich people who would prefer custom-made titanium cards instead? Or maybe Providus Bank. A couple of weeks ago, the Nigerian company said it had started making a new type of debit card that’s not only non-plastic but also biodegradable. (Sidebar: biodegradable is when a material can decompose in a way that doesn’t pollute the environment. As you know, plastic is a threat to life on Earth).

Back to Providus.
Its new card has been named the ProvidusEco. Naturally. But why bother at all with an eco-friendly card? With Nigeria’s inflation rates as high as 17 percent and the dollar now exchanging for N620 on the black market, the sceptic in us would want to question the bank’s real motive. Why is it a priority at this moment to launch an eco-friendly card?

I wish there were direct answers. And there are; it’s just that they are more serious than what critics like us would like: a predictable marketing gimmick.

Meanwhile, before we go on, let me ask you this: Have you seen corn in Lagos this year? You might have, but have you truly seen corn in abundance, the way you were used to seeing it at this time of the year? I don’t think so. It does appear like corn, earnestly welcomed between March and June of every year, has in 2022 chosen to play an unfunny game of peekaboo with its fans. This minute you see it, the next minute it’s gone.

There could be many reasons for this Cunningness of the Corn this year. One of those reasons could be that the much-reported, bloody nationwide banditry is slowing down the transportation of farm produce. Another could be a general reduction in crop outputs. Or it could just be good old global warming. By the way, if you think about it, those three factors could in fact be directly connected.

Global warming, sadly, is not just a first world problem. If the tides continue to rise and seasons keep getting too hot or too cold, food crops — such as corn — will suffer severely. That’s according to science. If food crops suffer, hunger will ensue for everyone, especially those of us in developing economies.

Which is why it is logical for elite business organisations to now include eco friendliness in their product design and marketing messages. Who else is better placed to galvanise the country than corporations that engage with millions of people every day — via massive advertising, public relations, and one-on-one contact?

Well, Providus Bank happens to be one of such corporations. But is it doing this out of the goodness of its heart? The answer to that question is: should it? Yes. And no.

Yes, because a wrecked Earth isn’t a profitable enterprise for anyone, almighty banks included. No, because, of course, Providus is a business, and businesses must make a profit if they must survive.

Expectedly then, Providus appears to be doing both — hugging trees while wearing a business suit. At the bank’s public presentation of the ProvidusEco, Walter Akpani, Providus Bank CEO, said, “The resultant effects [of human activity on climate conditions] is perhaps the most important issue facing humanity today;” and it’s everyone’s “responsibility,” either as ordinary folk that’s simply consuming what’s on offer in the market or as corporate entities, to “act responsibly in a bid to save the earth for future generations.”

Therefore, he promised, the ProvidusEco card, even if it appears as an only child of the bank’s green goals, wouldn’t be the last of its kind. In addition, said Akpani, Providus signed a partnership with T.R.E.E. Initiative, a nongovernmental organisation, to plant a tree in “different parts of the country” for every Eco card issued to a customer. He also declared that the bank would drastically reduce the amount of paper that accompanies every card.

Which also sounds like a little revolution in itself. By convention, every bank dispatches their credit and debit cards in a paper envelope. Inside that envelope is also a welcome letter and instructional literature, printed on paper. Now, Providus has elected to chuck tradition. Going forward, said Akpani, all that will accompany its new debit card is a QR code, printed on a piece of paper, not larger than a business card.

That works, doesn’t it, particularly because research has shown that there are many dimensions from which debit cards may contribute to global warming. First, 90 percent of the 24.56 billion cards in circulation are made from PVC (Poly Vinyl Chloride), a main source of dioxin emission, which negatively affects the human body and the environment. In 2019 alone, according to data from the payment industry research firm Nilson, more than five billion of those debit cards were made and distributed to consumers worldwide.

If one card weighs five grams, said Chris Cantle, executive editor at Nilson, those five billion cards would have created about 24 million kilograms of additional material that the planet must now grapple with, in landfills and oceans. Add to this disquieting problem the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and energy costs of making the cards and moving them from place to place.

The defence and aerospace firm Thales Group estimates that the carbon emissions from those cards is almost equal to 30 billion plastic bags or 500,000 people taking a flight from New York to Sydney.

If payment cards, in their most common state, must be recycled, that’s another mountain to climb. Erin Simon, head plastic waste and business at the World Wildlife Fund, in an email to the Payments Dive blog, reckoned that the most efficient way to recycle cards is if consumers do it themselves. Apart from the “tricky” matter of security, cards and their chips are made of plastic, glass and metal. Companies may collect and recycle them “but that seems less efficient.”

So, many companies are now having to rethink cards. Apple, for instance, offers a titanium option for its credit card that it issues in collaboration with Goldman Sachs. Titanium is recyclable.

While recycling might not have been top of mind for a large portion of Nigerian consumers, there can never be an earlier time to wake them up to it. One way to do that is through an item that many carry in their wallets, pockets, purses, and behind their phones every day. The more the topic is in front of us, the more we’re reminded of it, the more we factor it into our lives and businesses.

And perhaps, if any of us chooses to venture into green energy as a form of business, we might just make Providus Bank part of the plan. I’d walk in and play the card they’ve already given me.