Gujarat: Demonetised currency notes recycled to develop usable products

Ahmedabad: In a bid to recycle waste and turn it into something useful, students of the National Institute of Design (NID) here are attempting to develop usable products from scrapped currency notes.

The project has been given to the NID by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) which has sent over 200kg briquettes (blocks of compressed material) of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes to the institute.

Moreover, students can also earn prize money of Rs. 50,000, Rs 75,000 and Rs. 1 lakh if they are successful at creating a usable design.

Coordinator of furniture and interior design course at the NID Pravinsinh Solanki said that the institute will hold an all-India competition at the end of May.

Talking about the scrapped notes, Solanki said, "These currency notes have been destroyed and have now become scrap. The government wants us to recycle them."

"The government is aware that we should not waste resources, as a lot of time had gone in designing those notes as well as paper and printing material," he added.

The NID is going to design something which can be helpful for society and inspire others to reuse.

Solanki however said that it will be too early to say what kind of products can be made from the scrapped notes, and further expressed hope that the initiative to recycle inspires others to help in attaining a green future.