Globally, Banknote waste paper is almost always shredded and incinerated and contributes in pollution. On the other hand, Improper waste management of organic wastes, e.g., municipal solid waste, cattle manure and poultry manure etc. is also contributing to climate crisis, while being detrimental to human health. Being an environmentally conscious organization, PSPC has always been very keen to improve our environment. PSPC have been shredding on average, 1-1.5 Ton/day of waste paper. As part of State Bank of Pakistan and PSPC’s contribution towards its CSR goals and care for the Environment, the PSPC initiated the Banknote Waste Paper Composting Project back in July 2020. Within three months of experimentation, PSPC concluded that;

• Printed banknote paper waste resulted into high-quality compost with natural nutrients that are required to replenish the soil, e.g. NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium) .
• Treatment of sunflower seeds with 1% compost (produced from Banknote) increased plant height, number of leaves and root length significantly
• The Physiochemical Analysis shows that the compost has no adverse effects onto the environment as the amount of heavy metals, Salmonella and Fecal Coliform are within the permissible limits as per international standards for a good quality compost.
• Composting helps to reduce greenhouse effects by limiting the production of gases like methane. Moreover, composting process generates 0.59 ton lesser CO2 per ton of banknote waste paper than the burning process. Calculations shows that composting produces only 0.87 Ton of CO2/Ton of Printed Waste as compared to combustion/burning that produces 1.46 tons of CO2/ton of printed waste paper. Consequently, PSPC has reduced 320 tons of CO2 emissions/annum through this technique
• The high quality compost has a high market demand that is expected to result into a net profit of $50-$70/ton of compost . For PSPC, annual profit would be ranging from $50k-$70k.