The Reserve Bank of India has opted to recycle, old, soiled currency notes into various useful products. A week-long exhibition on handmade paper handmade paper revealed the fact that it could soon replace polythene or plastic products.
With more and more malls and retail outlets going ‘green’ with also replacing plastic carry bags with hand made paper bags and pouches, small scale units and industries on handmade paper from recycled waste has opened up.
Since the currency notes are made from pure cotton fiber, they are just ideal for making file folders, photo frames, carry bags etc. If not the domestic market, demand for such environment-friendly finished products has been phenomenal and still growing, especially in the international market.
Dr Ashwani Sharma, deputy director, Kumarappa National Handmade Paper Institute, Jaipur said,
USA, UAE and a number of European countries bank hugely on recycled-paper-made items like gift-wrapping paper, photo frames, booklets, writing pads, carry bags and other products.
He is one of those been approached by the Reserve Bank of India to come up with ways to recycle soiled currency notes.
