Available for both personal and business customers, the card is made from 84% bio-sourced renewable materials such as field corn and takes just six months to decompose unlike its plastic equivalent, which takes around 400 years.

When the full portfolio of cards is switched to bio-sourced cards, a project expected to be completed by 2026, Bank of Ireland will save 17 tonnes of CO2 and 4.48 tonnes of plastic (equivalent to over 160,000 500ml plastic bottles) per year.

Alongside the switch to sustainable cqards, the Bank is also upgrading the design with flat-printed numbers at an increased font size and a notch cut out of the card to help people insert it into a card machine or ATM the right way.

The bio-sourced cards will be provided to all new customers, existing customers as their old cards expire, and as a replacement for damaged, lost or stolen cards.

The Bank first introduced bio-sourced debit cards for third-level students in September 2020.

Eamonn Hughes, chief sustainability & investor relations officer at Bank of Ireland Group, says: "The environmental credentials of these bio-sourced cards are exceptionally strong and with 60,000 already being used by third-level students, we will now radically expand the rollout across our entire cards business in Ireland and the UK."