The environmental footprint of euro banknotes, from their manufacture to their destruction, is “very low”, assures Monday the European Central Bank (ECB) which publishes its first study on the subject.
Carried out in 2019, this study takes into account several criteria – CO2 emissions, damage to the ozone layer, water consumption, etc. – to arrive at an overall score equivalent each year to “an eight-kilometer journey by car” , or “0.01% of the total environmental impact of the annual consumption activities of a European”.
The main factors contributing to the environmental footprint of banknotes are the energy consumption of automatic teller machines (ATMs) and the transport of cash, specify the authors of the study.
“The Eurosystem is committed to making euro banknotes as environmentally friendly as possible while ensuring that cash is widely accessible and accepted,” said Piero Cipollone, member of the ECB executive board, quoted in a statement.
The ECB also recalls that it took measures “since 2004” to reduce the environmental footprint of euro banknotes, for example by aiming for the exclusive use of sustainable cotton and by prohibiting the landfilling of used banknotes.
It also emphasizes having undertaken “significant research and development work (…) to make future euro banknotes even more environmentally friendly at all stages of their life cycle”.
Cash remains the primary means of payment in the twenty euro zone countries but its erosion is notable: the share of cash in physical payments fell from 72% in 2019 to 59% last year.
The Banque de France is also the leading producer of euro banknotes, among the eleven printing companies in the euro zone.
This year it ruled on the construction of a new ticket printing plant to replace the current Chamalières factory near Clermont-Ferrand, on the site of the Vic-le-Comte paper mill, not far from there.
When the project is completed in 2026, France should have “the most modern, efficient and ecological public banknote production center (stationery and printing) in Europe”, the central bank said at the end of September.