'Good as new' banknotes gaining favour for Lunar New Year red packets
HKMA push to make giving red lai see packets a greener act starting to bear fruit
Ten years of effort to make the Lunar New Year lai see tradition more environmentally friendly is bearing fruit, with an estimated 140 million fewer new notes being used in the lucky red packets each year.
And this has helped save 186 tonnes of cotton.
Lydia Chan Yip Siu-ming, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's head of currency, said support from the public and the note-issuing banks had seen the share of used but "good as new" notes increase to 45 per cent from 20 per cent in 2006.
That reduced the number of new banknotes used each year for lai see packets to about 260 million and cut cotton consumption to 346 tonnes.
As the Lunar New Year approaches, the authority has renewed its call for the public to consider environmental protection and put "good as new" used banknotes in lai see packets rather than newly printed ones.
With many people using credit cards or Octopus cards for everyday purchases, the usage of banknotes has fallen - except during the Lunar New Year when an estimated HK$10 billion of banknotes are needed for lai see packets.
In the run-up to the new year, bank customers queue for hours to withdraw newly printed notes, mostly HK$20 notes.