China's Qingdao city - a popular coastal tourist destination also known for the Tsingtao beer - is starting to use plastic boarding passes at its Liuting Airport, due to sustainability concerns.

The Liuting airport has been seeing its traffic as well as the number of boarding passes grow rapidly in recent years, according to Xinhua News Agency. In 2009 alone, more than 1 million paper boarding passed were printed.

The new plastic alternative wins out because it's reusable. Made out of flexible plastic material, these boarding passes are durable and easy to carry. On one side, the card shows gate and the airline; and the back side shows a map of the airport.

Click here to see photos of the card.