Members of the UK’s Cash Industry Environmental Charter (CIEC) Group have shared best practice and worked together since 2021 with the aim of reducing the carbon footprint of notes and coins in the cash cycle.
As part of this work, a key focus is reducing plastic waste because, as an industry, the UK cash cycle produces around 504,000 tonnes of plastic waste each year.
UK Finance has recently issued a summary of some of the concrete changes made by members of the CIEC Group.
The story so far
The Bank of England will now take back note cage seals for recycling and are returning cage liners to members of the Note Circulation Scheme for re-use.
G4S, a cash in transit company, has moved from wrapping banknotes in plastic to strapping them, reducing plastic use by 25,000-30,000 bags per annum. Simply by changing the way vehicle trip sheets are printed they have saved around 25,000 sheets of paper per month.
Lloyds Banking Group has removed Plastic Bank Note Envelopes (PBNEs) from use in their branches.
Loomis has reduced the size of many of their plastic bags, moved to 30% recycled plastic for stationery items and implemented closed loop recycling, ensuring that all waste is reused or recycled into new products.
NatWest has moved to standard cash order values for branches, reducing both the amount of effort required to pack and check them and the need for plastic overwrapping. All plastic used is now comprises of between 30% and 60% recycled content and paper envelopes are being used for branch deposits.
Santander debit and credit cards are made from recycled plastic and there are deposit boxes in branches for the public to recycle expired cards. These are shredded securely then the plastic is reused.
Tesco, a major UK retailer, has cash delivered to its stores using paper bands rather than PBNEs, removing around 150,000 bags each year from their operations.
Vaultex now use environmentally friendly sugar cane-based paper, rather than wood-based, and in October t moved to using 100% renewable energy. They have removed PBNEs from their own operations, saving over 4.1 million bags per year and are also now using smaller bags for some coin denominations. Where possible, they have moved from plastic consumables to reusable/permanent alternatives. Using reusable cable ties rather than plastic seals has saved over 50kg of plastic per year.
Virgin Money branches also now use paper envelopes to deposit notes into cash centres and most single use plastic pouches used in branches have been replaced with reusable ones.
The new seals used on Bank of England cages are made of less virgin plastic and are fully recyclable. A review is underway of the security bags currently in use with the aim of reducing sizes and creating uniformity across the industry. A paper has been written detailing the environmental impact of bronze coin.
What can customers do?
A guide has been created for CIEC customers to ensure that cash is deposited in the most efficient way, saving on wrapping and reducing the machine time required for processing.
It has been circulated to members of UK Finance, the British Retail Consortium, Association of Convenience Stores and British Independent Retailers Association, see below.
Still working together
The aim is to reduce the impact of cash on the environment, make processes more efficient and keep cash available for everyone. By sharing information and ideas and by working together, much has been done, but a whole range of other initiatives are in hand.
Customer Presentation Guide
What you can do to reduce carbon emissions:
• Don’t use inner bags/ wallets for single credit cash deposits.
• If depositing multi credit cash deposits, try to not use plastic inner bags/ wallets for each deposit where elastic bands or paper alternatives could be used instead to attach the deposit to the credit slip.
• Deposit any loose multi denomination coin less than full bag values into one sachet –not only can this save a lot of unnecessary plastic, it’s also easier for us to process your coins when presented all mixed together rather than in lots of individual sachets.
• Secure bundles of notes with paper note bands or loose elastic bands only, do not use PBNE’s/ Plastic Note Wrappers.
• Keep notes straight and flat in deposits, please don’t roll or fold them –rolled and folded notes often need to be run though our machines several times to straighten them, and some folded notes are unable to re-enter circulation due to damage, so keeping them flat can help keep emissions down.
[1] The Cash Industry Environmental Charter (CIEC) Group, as it became known, became a formal grouping in January 2021 when eight organisations signed the charter committing them to achieving four targets. 16 of the 26 organisations continue to meet regularly and to work together.
