Mobile company introduces a biodegradable SIM card

French mobile phone company SFR is introducing a ‘paper’ SIM card which is biodegradable and recyclable. Developed by Oberthur Technologies, a French chip card company, apart from the microcontroller itself it consists entirely of natural wood fibres.
Apparently the card performs in the same way as the usually plastic-based versions, but being wood-based has a reduced environmental impact. Lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions are 30% less, according to research from SFR.
The card was launched on November 17 with a pilot involving 10,000 cards for new or renewing SFR customers.

Last year the company introduced biodegradable plant-based plastic for its SIM cards, made from a renewable material derived from corn, sugarcane or potato starch. Now it seems to have gone one stage further. The new card apparently only saves about six grams of CO₂e per customer (according to greenIT.fr), equivalent to 132 tonnes of CO₂e across all SFR customers. But, as they say, every little counts.

Source: http://www.thegreenitreview.com/2011/12/mobile-company-introduces-biodegradable.html