What concrete opportunities do central banks have, to make the cash cycle more environmentally friendly and thus contribute to global efforts to improve sustainability? To answer this question, it first needs to be looked at the beginning of the cash cycle, the banknote itself, and what a sustainable banknote is.
It all starts with the right choice of banknote paper – durable, renewable, secure. A durable banknote is sustainable due to a low carbon footprint – but there is more to consider: The amount of natural materials that regrow within a short period of time must also be taken into account in order to reduce the environmental impact.
And in the end? Thanks to a new technology, the high wet-strength fibre-based banknotes can be decomposed into their individual fibres, allowing the valuable raw material to be recovered and being further processed, for example in the paper industry.
This exploration journey into the sustainability of banknotes shows that a holistic approach needs to be considered. Sustainability cannot be an one-sided argument only. It\`s a wide range of different aspects and represents a very effective way for central banks to make the cash cycle more environmentally friendly.
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