What do you do with your old bank cards? I suspect that most of us scissor them into pieces and put them in different bins. I think that’s what we’re supposed to do with them, even though it means dispatching those little shards of plastic into landfill for all time. They’re too small to process any other way. And that’s a shame, because bank cards are made with tough and durable PVC that is 100% recyclable.

Renato Soares de Paula is a Brazilian businessman who owns a company that makes plastic cards. He began thinking about the reverse logistics of his product, which could include store cards, membership cards or gift tokens as well as bank cards. Was there any way to get them back at the end of their useful life, and re-use the plastic?

His company’s solution is a machine called the Papa Cartao. It’s a sturdy…