Every Little Bit of Sustainability Helps

Gary Spinks of Security Fibres introduced his presentation in one of the Innovation Sessions at the Banknote Conference with the acknowledgement that, in the great scheme of things, security fibres are an infinitesimally small element of security paper, and therefore the impact of more sustainable fibres is limited. Even so, he said, everyone needs to do their bit.

That bit for Security Fibres is the development of a new technique that cleans fibres of pigments, enabling paper ‘broke’ to be better recycled.

Security fibres comprise around 0.01% per tonne of paper, and 1kg of fibres is enough for 1 million banknotes. But roughly 5% of security paper produced ends up as broke – ie. the waste from trims and offcuts – which is then returned to the production line. However, because this broke already contains fibres, their presence can cause specks and defects in the resulting recycled paper.

The answer, says Gary, is a technique whereby the paper from which the fibres are made is coated with a barrier prior to the addition of the pigment(s). This has no impact on the fibres’ durability or performance. But when it comes to recycling the paper broke containing those fibres, this can be immersed in a proprietary detergent solution for two hours that lifts away the barrier, taking the pigments with it.