This submission claims that "traditional banknotes which are based on special and expensive paper suffer from poor tear properties and they have limited life", and touts tallow-dependent plastics as a solution.<p>US currency is made of a cotton-linen blend, so (pedantically) it is not paper. Per US Currency Education Program [1], "it would take 4000 double folds, forwards and backwards, to tear a banknote". Is this insufficient for UK uses? In my wallet I currently have a couple hundred in US currency from years 2003 to 2014. None of them are falling apart. (The US Federal Reserve [2] estimates that US currency lasts between 4.7 and 22.9 years, depending on denomination.)<p>Given the societal shift to digital payments, cards, etc, is the UK hoping to create banknotes that last until the end of time or something? (If so, plastics are probably a great choice. But I'm guessing that indestructible bills will eventually become quite economical to counterfeit, so you'll still want to cycle through security measures every few years.)<p>[1] <a href="https://www.uscurrency.gov/about-us/currency-facts" rel="nofollow">https://www.uscurrency.gov/about-us/currency-facts</a>
[2] <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/how-long-is-the-life-span-of-us-paper-money.htm" rel="nofollow">https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/how-long-is-the-life-spa...</a>
Another interesting additive in many plastics is glass fibres or beads, they are often used to strengthen the plastic and give it slightly different mechanical properties. The downside of the glass fillers is that they erode the tools much more quickly (glass is very abrasive), kind of the opposite of Tallow which helps to keep the plastic flowing over the surfaces better.<p>On glass filled parts you will often see a small ring around the "gate" (gates are where the plastic is injected). The gate is under enormous pressure and has a very high flow rate through it, so it tends to erode significantly more quickly. To counter that the gate is often an inserted part that can be changed out easily when servicing the tool, or made from a higher toughened grade of steel. Hence a small ring, a witness mark of where the join is.
Perhaps the main thing about tallow is that there's a glut of it, likewise lard. People want more and more meat, but want it to be leaner, creating a surplus of tallow. Also, its use in deep fryers, e.g., by the fast food industry, was curtailed when vegetable oil became preferable in the market.<p>A relative of mine worked in a chemical factory in Detroit, that made lubricants for metal working. Many of them were either formulated directly from tallow and lard, or were soaps. The materials were cheap, they worked, and were considered to be relatively non-toxic.<p>One thing I've noticed is that detergent based "soap" has disappeared from the market. It used to be that you could get detergent bars that contained no soap. They also didn't produce soap scum in hard water areas. Remember, "You're not really clean until you're Zestfully clean." Well, Zest was a detergent bar.<p>Today, looking for detergent "soap" at the store, it's gone. Even Zest is made from lard or tallow, last time I looked at the ingredients. I've banned soap from my house because I hate cleaning up the soap scum. We use liquid body wash instead.<p>/rant
The explanation is quite disappointing: Using an alternative "might" be worse in few ways. OK, so where is the data, pros and cons comparison?
Our cat goes nuts for some plastic bags - licking and licking them like they’re the best thing ever.<p>Granted he’s a little weirdo, but I looked into in on the off chance there was something wrong with him or the plastics could be harmful, but the only thing I could come up with was that some bags have more tallow in them than others and that was what he was reacting to.<p>So, therefore, tallow in plastic = tasty for cats.
For obvious reasons, the use of beef tallow has been particularly offensive to some Hindus. Some have even banned the new banknotes from temples: <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-38195265" rel="nofollow">https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-38195265</a>
The phrase "There are alternative options such as non-animal fats and hydrocarbon waxes, but these might increase the cost of production, reduce efficiency, affect recyclability and finally negatively affect the environment."....<p>....is such a semi-randomly grab-bagged set of statements similar to a set of nigh-unverifiable closing statements made as a desperate last-ditch attempt at proving a point in a debate that I feel it significantly weakens the article's stance, not strengthens it.<p>For example, with people with religious and moral objections to using animal products along governmentally-supervised transactional lines, whataboutism involving other parts of the supply chain/where animal products are used don't really serve to prove the point -- again. In turn, if we were to use this bit of what I'd consider to be somewhat faulty logic, the bank notes could be used as leverage in the future as the example in a list of products that uses animal products, just as other items in that list are being used as leverage today.<p>As for my position -- sometimes I eat meat, sometimes I don't, but I'd like to please avoid flesh in my money, however miniscule.
This piece avoids mentioning why it was written- around this time, it came to light that new UK bank notes contain beef tallow so are problematic for Hindu and vegan people who rightly have problems with these replacing old paper notes.
I'm the only one that is horrified by tallow? Why do they have to stick animal parts <i>in everything?</i> fsck animal products. Just hunting them, raising them in deplorable conditions, eating them, wearing them and causing global pandemics with them is not good enough? I'd only accept the use of tallow if it was derived entirely from non-virgin human fat, humans that died naturally, of course, and were allowed to sit in hot and humid conditions until fully rancid but before desiccation. Maybe now you know how I feel.
I wonder about the religious implications.<p>Is this Kosher? Halal? What about the implications for Hindu or Vegans?<p>It might seem silly for the rest of us, but for them is a matter of life and death.