As holiday shoppers exchange billions of gift cards, these plastic items contribute to substantial environmental waste. Most are made from PVC, which is hard to recycle and persists for centuries. Retailers are increasingly offering sustainable alternatives to reduce this impact.
The holiday season sees massive distribution of gift cards, which have been the most-requested gift for the 18th consecutive year. Around 64% of U.S. consumers purchase them during this period. However, these cards, primarily made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), generate considerable waste. In the United States, about 10 billion gift cards are sold annually, producing an estimated 50,700 tons of plastic waste. Their production alone emits more than 40,000 tons of CO2 each year. Globally, nearly 30 billion plastic cards are manufactured annually, according to the International Card Manufacturers Association.
Over 70% of gift cards are discarded within six months of use, and PVC can take up to 500 years to decompose in landfills. When broken down, they form microplastics that contaminate food, water, and human bodies. Incineration releases dioxins, harmful carcinogens that build up in the food chain. Compounding the issue, approximately $23 billion in gift cards go unused yearly in the U.S., with 47% of American adults holding at least one unredeemed card.
Curbside recycling programs rarely accept PVC, leading to contamination when mistakenly included. Research from U.K. bank NatWest highlights how such confusion affects millions of tons of recycled plastic. For physical cards, sustainable options are emerging. Best Buy switched to 100% recyclable paper cards in 2021, cutting about 18 tons of plastic waste annually; these use FSC-certified paper with water-soluble glue and ink. Apple, Amazon, and Starbucks now provide paper or cardboard versions from renewable sources. Starbucks introduced plantable seed cards on Earth Day 2022, which can grow wildflowers after use. Visa offers paper cards via select retailers.
The optimal solution is digital gift cards, which comprise 48.7% of the market in 2024. They avoid production, packaging, and shipping impacts, and are redeemed faster—averaging 16.8 days versus 35.3 days for physical ones—reducing unused value. Retailers like Walmart and Starbucks allow reloading physical cards for reuse. For PVC disposal, TerraCycle's mail-in programs charge $48 for a pouch holding 50 cards or $167 for a larger box. In the U.K., NatWest's Reverse Vending Machines have recycled over 35,000 cards into items like hats and socks.