Recycling banknotes: Turning cash into a natural resource
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This article was first published by Royal Dutch Kusters Engineering and written by Twan Venner last 16 May 2019, accessible here.
The disposal of unfit banknotes doesn’t stop with the destruction and briquetting of the banknotes alone. There is still the remaining waste paperSee Banknote paper. More in the briquettes. So what is done with this waste material? There are several preferable and less preferable end destinations for the compacted banknoteA banknote (or ‘bill’ as it is often referred to in the US) is a type of negotiable promissory note, issued by a bank or other licensed authority, payable to the bearer on demand. More waste. In this article we look into the recyclingThe process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. Banknotes are increasingly recycled after destruction, and the waste is often used for landfills, isolation material etc. Polymer notes are melted into pellets which are recycled into new products. Recycling is often incorrectly used instead of recirculation. See Recirculation. More of unfit banknotes.
Recycling of banknote shreds
Although the properties of the briquettes largely determine their further use, economic and environmental circumstances definitely play a vital role in the choice of possible applications. Some of the alternatives are:
1) Landfill
Dumping in landfills does not recover any energy and cannot be said to serve any useful purpose whatsoever. More than any other waste form, several criteria must be borne in mind when selecting a method for disintegrating currency. These are: security, technical, economical, and environmental issues. The environmental issues with dumping banknote shreds in landfill lead us to recommend avoiding this as a solution.
2) Incineration
As the briquettes have excellent combustion characteristics, it will be no problem to discharge them to controlled waste incineration plants. Incineration is widely accepted as a solution in dealing with the increasing amounts of household and industrial waste generated in the world. It is considered to be an environmentally sound solution to the waste problem, provided that the incinerating plant is equipped with flue gas treatment systems, thus protecting the environment against the pollutants generated during combustion of solid waste.
Banknote briquettes can be incinerated at normal temperatures (900 degrees C) and no special high temperature treatment is required. As the combustion value of briquettes is excellent (1,6 x 104 KJ/kg), it may be a favorable additive fuel to balance the poor combustion values of other kinds of waste. The briquettes may also be used as (additional) fuel in industrial furnaces.
3) Fuel for the cement/ceramic industry
All over the world, cement is an essential construction element for building houses, offices, plants, roads and bridges. Cement, however, is not a mineral which can be readily mined, but is a reaction product of a process of burning and heating limestone with a number of additives together in a furnace. The gigantic furnaces used in this process operate at very high temperatures to provoke the requested reaction and therefore ask for large amounts of fuel.
As fuel costs represent a large cost factor in the production process of cement, it is obvious that cement producers are constantly searching for cheap additional fuels for the partial replacement of currently used fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and brown coal. Various kinds of industrial wastes are in use as alternative fuel and consequently briquettes of granulated used banknotes may take the same place.Cement factories normally will have to comply with emission regulations and the burning of briquettes will not changeThis is the action by which certain banknotes and/or coins are exchanged for the same amount in banknotes/coins of a different face value, or unit value. See Exchange. More that position.
4) Coolant for the steel industry
Worldwide, the production of steel is commonly based on the Linz-Donawitz process, named after the steel plants in the homonymous towns where this process was used for the first time. The process is based on blowing pure oxygen into the steel in the melting pot, which generates a large amount of energy and thus produces the so-called oxysteel. In order to cool down this oxysteel, various materials must be added to the melt as extra mass with the effect that the excess energy is used for the ignition and burning of the injected materials. As wood is often used for this purpose, banknote briquettes could be a good alternative as they are quite comparable to wood.
5) Composting
Finally, another sustainable solution to dispose of the unfit banknoteThe opposite of a fit banknote. A banknote which, due to its deterioration or poor quality, is no longer suitable to be returned into circulation, and will be destroyed by the central bank. More shreds is by composting them. This has been one the methods used by the Bank of England since the early 2000’s after they stopped incinerating the notes in the 1990s. By using it as a soilSee Soiling. More improver, the notes leave little footprint. Read more about the banks approach here.
PolymerA substrate used in the printing of banknotes, made of biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) polymer. Polymer banknotes were first introduced in Australia and are widely used around the world. More banknotes
In recent years, polymer banknotes have been added to the cashMoney in physical form such as banknotes and coins. More circulation of many countries. Of course, as a plastic type, a whole different range of recycling possibilities apply for these types of notes.
Read more on this in Royal Dutch Kusters’ latest article on polymer.
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