Plastic cards are a convenient, ubiquitous source of plastic waste. You’re probably sporting a few of them right now in your wallet. Or they’re stacked inside a random kitchen drawer. Flat and featherweight, these plastic rectangles pile up. You use them for shopping. For banking. Gift giving and earning reward program points. You may even receive blank versions in your junk mail.

When no longer needed, credit cards, gift cards, and other plastic cards often pose a disposal dilemma. They usually don’t belong in mixed recycling. And if you’re concerned about protecting your personal information and the environment, you won’t want to toss them in the trash.

So, instead of retiring them to that overflowing drawer of useless stuff in the kitchen, put expired cards to work. To spark your imagination, we’re highlighting an assortment of no-fuss, artistic, and innovative approaches to repurposing your old cards.

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Practical Ideas

Spare your fingernails. Use the rigid edges of old plastic cards to scrape stubborn residue from floors, walls, and other surfaces.

Keep cards in your car during winter to scrape ice from frosty windshields, suggested Terry Wendelken, co-manager of ReSOUCE in Barre, Vermont.

Make guitar picks. For a traditional, rounded triangle shape, trace another pick on the plastic and snip with your scissors. Or purchase a pick punching tool. Several versions, which resemble a stapler and work similarly to a paper punch, such as Pick-a-Palooza, are sold online and in office supply stores.

Use expired cards as bookmarks, Wendelken says. His bookmark is an old Blockbuster card.

Fashion a spare key. Instructables user KrazyKred offers do-it-yourself instructions for creating an emergency spare key from an old credit card.

DIY Phone and Tablet Stands. Cut strategic slits and fold cards into adjustable device stands. The rigid plastic provides stable support for phones during video calls or tablets while cooking. You can customize the angle by adjusting the fold points, and the slim profile makes them perfect for travel or small spaces. Multiple tutorials are available on Instructables and WebFX for different folding techniques.

Garden Plant Markers. Transform cards into weatherproof plant labels for your garden or indoor plants. Cut them into strips or stakes, write the plant names and care instructions with a permanent marker, and push them into the soil. The plastic withstands the weather better than paper labels. It won’t decompose like wooden markers, making them ideal for long-term garden organization. The Micro Gardener and Dengarden offer comprehensive guides for creating effective plant markers from recycled plastic.

Cut and fold cards into flower box fridge magnets. DIY instructions are offered on Instructables.

Use old cards to shingle a dollhouse, suggests Wendelken.

Custom Craft Stencils. Create personalized stencils by cutting letters, numbers, or shapes from old cards, then reuse them in complex compositions. Sturdy plastic holds crisp edges better than paper templates and can be reused countless times for painting projects, scrapbooking, or decorating furniture. The smooth surface makes paint cleanup easy, and you can layer multiple cards to create complex, multi-colored designs. The Craft Crib offers detailed tutorials on making and utilizing homemade stencils effectively.

Repurposing Pride

“I like working with the cards because of the colors and difficulty to repurpose,” Orr told Earth911. “I have thousands of credit cards, sorted by color… People send me cards from all over the world to incorporate into my work.”
Whether you’re creating practical solutions or artistic expressions, old plastic cards offer endless possibilities for creative reuse.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on July 20, 2018, and substantially updated in July 2025.