Sustainable options are still a ways off
Polyvinyl chloride–or PVC for short–dominates the nation’s plastic-card market despite efforts to find more ecologically friendly materials. Cards made of 100% PVC account for perhaps 90% of all the plastic cards made in North America, according to card-industry executives. Most of the other 10% are composite cards with polyester cores sandwiched between layers of PVC.
“PVC has been honed in our trade for over 30 years for print-grade stock–everything is built around PVC,” says Bill Crawford, vice president of sales and marketing for Franklin, Ohio-based Waytek Corp., a materials and coatings supplier to card manufacturers, and a board member of the Princeton Junction, N.J.-based International Card Manufacturers Association.
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