Recycled PVC and Plant-Based Key Cards: What We Make and What You Can Claim

The build is a standard card in which the plastic content is post-consumer rather than virgin. Print quality, lamination options, stiffness and lifespan behave like the standard card, so a property can switch mid-cycle without retraining anyone or changing how the card is issued and returned.

That is the honest advantage: it removes virgin plastic from the order without asking the operation to absorb any change. The honest limitation is that it is still PVC at end of life, so what happens to it depends on whether a local recycling stream will accept it — which in most Caribbean destinations it will not.

Plant-based board is compressed plant fibre with a matte, paper-like surface. It is lighter in the hand than PVC and reads as deliberately non-plastic, which is the point for properties whose guests are looking for that signal. It prints cleanly in full colour but does not take a high-gloss finish, so artwork designed for gloss PVC needs reviewing before it is approved.

Its end-of-life route depends on the specific facility receiving the material and on the documentation for the individual order, rather than on a general property of the category. It is also the more sensitive construction in humidity, so for Dominican properties we specify it for room-key duty rather than for cards expected to live in a pocket at the pool all week.

We supply material composition information for the run we produce, and nothing beyond it. What a property should publish is what the material is and what it does, not a general environmental virtue: recycled content is a fact about the input, compostability is a fact about a specific disposal route, and neither becomes a carbon claim.

For properties reporting under a sustainability framework, this matters more than the marketing. A documented material with a narrow, accurate description survives an audit. A broad green claim attached to a card is the thing that gets challenged.

1. 01

   Whether the aim is removing virgin plastic, changing end-of-life, or a visible signal to guests.

2. 02

   Construction: recycled PVC for an invisible switch, plant-based board for a visible one.

3. 03

   Artwork review, since plant-based board does not take a gloss finish.

4. 04

   Whether the card is room-only, or expected to travel to the pool and beach.

5. 05

   What documentation the property needs for its own reporting.

6. 06

   Quantity per design from 500 pieces, and whether both constructions run together.

For the wood option and the rest of the range — see the full construction list.

Choose the construction from the outcome you need to defend, not from the label. Removing virgin plastic and changing what happens to the card at disposal are separate goals with separate evidence, and a property that names which one it is pursuing gets a cleaner specification and a cleaner claim.