Do polymer banknotes generally contain animal fat?

Question

There is currently a brouhaha in England about the new polymer £5 notes, which contain trace amounts of animal fat.

Is this problem unique to England, or is it common to other places that use polymer banknotes?

Answer 1

Polypropylene, the base polymer typically used in the production of polymer banknotes (see the wikipedia link for example) often (but not always) contains trace amounts of tallow-derived stearates. While it is possible to produce them without these animal-derived additives, it is not as inexpensive (or is simply not something manufacturers pay much attention to).

There are some efforts to produce non-animal-containing plastics, such as the Kosher plastics movement, and other use cases such as in the case of pharmaceutical equipment it can be advantageous to use animal-free plastic equipment due to the paperwork around anything that could be a potential BSE vector (Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis, commonly known as 'mad cow disease').

I can't find much definitive on notes from other countries, just speculation like this article about Canada which speculates it is likely but does not state any definitive evidence. This will likely change as this story breaks (and other countries are asked the same question as BoE was).

Bank of Scotland has now confirmed their notes do not contain tallow or animal products, so UK vegans have an animal-free option for their 5 pound notes.

Answer 2

According to CNN Money, the company that supplies polymer to the UK for use in currency is Innovia Films. The company also provides polymer to 23 other countries for use in polymer currency, including Australia, Canada, and Mexico.

The article quotes spokesperson Patricia Potts, who claims that animal ingredients are against company policy and that the tallow was added by an unnamed supplier.

According to this report on ABC News (Australia), another Innovia spokesperson, Carlos Fernandez, confirmed that "miniscule amounts" of tallow are also used in the production of Australian banknotes.