81–90 of 95 posts
Reading this article, I was I itially surprised to read to Japan had to import raw material given their strong paper tradition (shoji , washi, origami, etc.). But then the article states that > Shrinking rural populations and climate change were driving Japan’s farmers to abandon their labor-intensive plots. Makes sense to try to conserve this resource somehow.
We (Nepali) have been using this material to make lokta paper for a long time now. These papers (Nepali Kaagaz) are used mainly today for official documents.
That's cool, is it something tourists could buy?
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> from an environmental standpoint From an environmental standpoint all banknotes should be shredded and burned and everyone should use contactless means of payment.
Why? Are you sure it is more environmental to keep all the computers, the network and other related infrastructure running (powered on, security updated, etc.) than it is to print and distribute banknotes every so many years and associated costs with that?
Like 99% of physical payments are already involves computers anyway, even if it is done with a paper/plastic note.
So it's not "replace notes with computers" but "get rid of notes because computers are there anyway".
Anecdote: I don't have a card linked to Uber, so I pay with a cash or a C2C transfer. In the last two years if I ask the driver if they prefer cash or C2C they consistently prefer C2C - because it's way less hassle for them and also they often claim they are short on change.
And in the another anecdote I still carry cash on me but I use it only for a taxi rides and a one local smallware shop, so they wouldn't need to pay the processing fee for the 50c things.
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Here are some numbers (points on the left): https://hn.algolia.com/?q=microplastics
This doesn't show anyone concerned about polymer money shedding microplastics and it doesn't show any numbers about how much polymer money sheds microplastics. What did you think this was evidence of?
It's called plastic money by the way, not polymer money.
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Plastic doesn't seem like a good solution, considering that notes are moved, stretched, flexed a lot and endure a lot of friction. Seems like a needless source for more plastic particles shedding into the environment.
You might be surprised to learn that a lot of the world uses polymer banknotes which are siignificantly more durable and last a lot longer than traditional 'paper' based currencies. The are incredibly hard to tear/break and they do not wear out or stretch. We've been using these in Australia since 1996. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymer_banknote Having handled a fair amount of US currency I can say it _feels_ dis…
Very interesting organization of Australias, and wish we had something like it in the US.
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This doesn't show anyone concerned about polymer money shedding microplastics and it doesn't show any numbers about how much polymer money sheds microplastics. What did you think this was evidence of?
I thought you doubt that people are concerned about microplastics in general, but apparently not. It's called plastic money by the way, not polymer money.
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I thought you doubt that people are concerned about microplastics in general, but apparently not. It's called plastic money by the way, not polymer money.
It's called plastic money by the way, not polymer money. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymer_banknote
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It's called plastic money by the way, not polymer money. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymer_banknote
This seems to be just a marketing name. You could equally call plastic cups "polymer cups".
If you go to a country where they use these, they call them polymer notes.
They are made from a polymer and people that use them call them polymer notes. That's a decent amount of evidence compared to your no evidence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJTLCmIW1rA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BD1xX7c1Jg
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=polymer+banknot...
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People concerned with _microplastics_. They don't care where it comes from. The point being - is money one? Why be so dismissive?
Why be so dismissive? Because there is zero evidence of what you're saying. How much plastic are people surrounded by and how much of that weight is bank notes? How much do they shed? Show some numbers or just use some common sense that this doesn't matter.
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Why be so dismissive? Because there is zero evidence of what you're saying. How much plastic are people surrounded by and how much of that weight is bank notes? How much do they shed? Show some numbers or just use some common sense that this doesn't matter.
I don't know! That's why we're asking. Do you know those numbers? If you do then you could enlighten us
https://phys.org/news/2020-06-tool-household-plastics-footpr...
A polymer bank note weighs 0.7g
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/banknotes/...
If you have 10 bank notes in your wallet, you have 162,285 times as much plastic in your house.
I think most people would have had used some basic common sense that even their trash bags are many times more plastic than the polymer bank notes they use.
Why did you possibly think that anyone should be focused on microplastics from bank notes?
At what point do you go from "just asking questions" to "maybe this is a bizarre thing to focus on" ?