First, let them offer a checkbox or a dropdown to ask the customer whether they need a physical card in the first place during the application process itself. There itself, 50% of plastic wastage can be achieved. Banks should implement virtual card management like what the SBI card and OneCard (and maybe other banks do as well) has already managed to do.
All banks
JF Plastic card : 999 +gst
JF metal card : 2999 + gst