BEING a vegan, a valued customer at the organic health shop, scrupulously recycling glass and paper, you shudder with distaste at supermarket plastic bags and are racked with guilt over the habitat of some endangered rodent. As a card carrying member of ecology group Greenpeace you cap still do more for the survival of the planet by simply changing the credit card in your non cruelty, non animal skin wallet into a new, flexible, ecological friend.

This week Greenpeace and Britain's environmentally aware Cooperative Bank added a new twist to the profusion of credit cards with an unusual offering to assuage the consciences of environmental purists - a biodegradable Visa card. Made from plants and guaranteed not to pollute, it looks, feels and even tastes (although it is not edible) like any other credit card and is PVC free. The card is made from biopol, a resin produced from wheat and sugar beet. Up to now all credit cards have used PVC which, when broken down, releases harmful dioxins. PVC is a cancer risk and is alarmingly linked to the drop in human sperm counts.

When the Greenpeace Visa card expires, toss it on the compost heap where it will decompose back to its organic elements with no threat to the fertility of future generations. Unfortunately, outstanding overdrafts are not biodegradable. They live on.