CaixaBank turns expired cards into benches for rural banking users
The Spanish lender has donated 40 benches made from recycled payment cards to villages served by its mobile banking units in Ávila.
By Ingrid Halvorsen · Staff Writer
· 2 min read
CaixaBank has begun installing public benches made from recycled bank cards in villages served by its mobile banking units, Finextra reported. The Spanish lender has donated an initial 40 benches to local councils, linking a card-recycling programme with a rural access initiative in Ávila province.
One of the first benches has been placed in Serranillos, a village in Ávila. Finextra said the bench was produced using plastic recovered from customers’ expired payment cards.
The project extends a recycling effort CaixaBank began in 2019. Since then, the bank has collected and recycled 4.6 million expired cards, representing 23 tonnes of plastic, according to the figures reported by Finextra.
Payment cards contain plastic that can be recovered once a card expires and is withdrawn from use. In this programme, CaixaBank collects old cards from customers, sends the material for recycling and uses the recovered plastic in public furniture. The benches are then donated to councils in communities that are on the route of the bank’s mobile service.
Rural access and branch coverage
CaixaBank is pairing the bench rollout with its mobile banking service, which visits towns and villages without fixed bank branches. The service operates under a 2025 agreement between CaixaBank and Ávila Provincial Council, which was designed to support financial inclusion across the province.
The arrangement covers 227 villages and reaches almost 34,000 residents, Finextra reported. The bank’s mobile units bring banking services to communities where maintaining a full branch network would otherwise be limited.
Gerardo Cuartero, CaixaBank’s regional director for Castile and León, said the initiative was intended to improve the experience of people waiting for the mobile banking service. He also said 70% of users are older than 65, and linked the benches to improved accessibility and more inclusive public spaces.
The project sits at the intersection of two operational issues for retail banks: how to handle physical card waste as payment cards expire, and how to maintain access to banking services in areas with sparse branch coverage. CaixaBank’s approach uses a product from its core card business as input for infrastructure in the communities served by its mobile units.
Finextra reported the programme as part of its sustainable finance coverage. The bank has not disclosed, in the reported details, the cost of the benches, the recycling partner involved or the timetable for any further installations beyond the first 40 donations.
This story draws on original reporting from Finextra Research.
