{"id":39344,"date":"2016-12-07T07:26:37","date_gmt":"2016-12-07T06:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=39344"},"modified":"2016-12-05T12:45:12","modified_gmt":"2016-12-05T11:45:12","slug":"new-5-note-row-over-tallow-blasted-as-absolutely-stupid-by-polymer-note-inventor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/new-5-note-row-over-tallow-blasted-as-absolutely-stupid-by-polymer-note-inventor\/","title":{"rendered":"“New \u00a35 Note Row Over Tallow Blasted As ‘Absolutely Stupid’ By Polymer Note Inventor"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Australian inventor of the polymer used on the new fiver has said the row over traces of animal fat in the note<\/a> is \u201cabsolutely stupid\u201d.<\/p>\n

It came to light this week that the new note contains tallow, a rendered form of beef or mutton fat, sometimes used in the production of items including soap and candles.<\/p>\n

The revelation left many vegans and vegetarians horrified and also prompted concern among faith groups who have rules against consuming or using beef<\/a> in manufacturing processes.<\/p>\n

But Professor David Solomon, who led a team which pioneered the technology which has seen polymer notes rolled out in a number of countries around the world, slammed the row.<\/p>\n

He told Australian radio station 2GB:<\/a> \u201cIt\u2019s stupid, it\u2019s absolutely stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n

He explained: \u201cWhen they make the polymer they start out with pellets and I think it\u2019s a coating on the pellets that comes in. The pellet is mainly polypropylene which is the main material they use, and then it\u2019s made into a film and they stick two films together to get the thickness they want.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if there was any tallow in there at all, it\u2019s buried in there. There\u2019ll be trivial amounts of it in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Solomon added that the note had many benefits, including being more hygienic and requiring less trees to be cut down.<\/p>\n

A petition to the Bank of England<\/a> to remove tallow from the new notes has now gathered more than 120,000 signatures.<\/p>\n

The Bank of England has said its supplier was now \u201cworking intensively\u201d to find a possible solution to the issue, adding that the issues \u201chas only just come to light\u201d.<\/p>\n

A statement from the Bank said: \u201cWe are aware of some people\u2019s concerns about traces of tallow in our new five pound note. We respect those concerns and are treating them with the utmost seriousness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis issue has only just come to light, and the Bank did not know about it when the contract was signed.<\/p>\n

\u201cInformation recently provided by our supplier, Innovia, and its supply chain shows that an extremely small amount of tallow is used in an early stage of the production process of polymer pellets, which are then used to create the base substrate for the five pound note.<\/p>\n

\u201cInnovia is now working intensively with its supply chain and will keep the Bank informed on progress towards potential solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new note is said by the Bank to be cleaner, safer and stronger than paper notes, lasting around five years longer.<\/p>\n

Governor Mark Carney said of the new note: \u201cThe use of polymer means it can better withstand being repeatedly folded into wallets or scrunched up inside pockets and can also survive a spin in the washing machine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expect polymer notes to last at least two and-a-half times longer than the current generation of fivers and therefore reduce future costs of production.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Australian inventor of the polymer used on the new fiver has said the row over traces of animal fat in the note is \u201cabsolutely stupid\u201d. It came to light this week that the new note contains tallow, a rendered form of beef or mutton fat, sometimes used in the production of items including soap […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[5838,5847],"supplier":[7999],"class_list":["post-39344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-bioeconomy","tag-bioplastics","supplier-bank-england"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39344\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39344"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=39344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}