LOS ANGELES — Like millions of Americans, Jessica Hamilton of Pasadena, Calif., will buy her friends and family a handful of gift cards this holiday season.

Yet Hamilton, who carries reusable bags when she goes shopping, is bothered by the thought of all that plastic ending up in landfills along with worn-out hotel key cards, credit cards and the like.

In 2012, the global card industry produced 33 billion cards, according to the International Card Manufacturers Association. Most of those cards contained polyvinyl chloride, a plastic that contains pollutants that are harmful to the environment and slow to decompose.

Increasingly, card manufacturers and retailers are listening, offering more alternatives to plastic cards.

High-end grocery store chain Whole Foods Market Inc. did away with plastic cards in 2011 and replaced them with paper gift cards.

Shoppers will buy nearly $30 billion in gift cards this holiday season, spending an average of about $163 on the items, a 4 percent increase from last year, according to an annual survey sponsored by the National Retail Federation.