Cash Recycling and Recirculation

The second Cash Sustainability Forum (CSF) takes place in Frankfurt, Germany from 24-26 June. On the first afternoon will be a workshop dedicated to the recycling and recirculation of cash. It will build on a white paper currently being researched and prepared and for which input is still very welcome.

This topic is core to the CSF because while good recirculation lowers costs and optimises the quality of notes in circulation, it also reduces the number of notes that need to be produced and the fossil fuels needed to move them around the cash cycle. With about two thirds of the impact of cash coming from its circulation, this is important.

The changing cash cycle

Once issued, cash flows like wild salmon ranging far and wide before eventually returning to their place of birth. Cash can circulate without infrastructure being recycled from person to person. If it ends up in a shop’s till or a bank’s vault, it gets recirculated as and when needed, although with damaged or dirty notes put to one side. Life has ever been thus. Or has it?