Scotland’s producers of new polymer bank notes have confirmed their cash is free of any animal products.
Royal Bank of Scotland, Bank of Scotland and the Clydesdale Bank were all asked to make statements about the contents of their notes after vegans throughout Britain reacted angrily yesterday to news that the Bank of England’s new ‘plastic’ £5 note contains animal fat.
Vegetarians were outraged that new BoE fivers were made with tallow, a substance produced from animal fat that is often used in the manufacturing of candles and soap.
Scottish Financial News asked Royal Bank of Scotland about the make-up of their notes and a spokesperson responded: “We can confirm the Royal Bank of Scotland’s new £5 polymer note contains no known animal products”.
A twitter user posed the same question on the social media platform, and was given the same response:
@Warnocklowe Hi, I’m MR. The manufacturer of our notes has confirmed that there are no known animal products in our polymer five pound note.
— Bank of Scotland (@AskBankOfScot) November 30, 2016
The Bank of England came under fire yesterday from animal activists and vegans over their new notes which have now been in circulation for three months.
Another Twitter user took to Twitter to ask Bank of England the contents, to which they responded “there is a trace of tallow in the polymer pellets used in the base substrate of the polymer £5 notes”
@bankofengland Thank you. Does this not have serious implications for any who will not use animal products?
— Annie Walker (@Thunderoad75) November 28, 2016
An online petition has been created “Remove Tallow from bank notes”, which now has over 117,000 supporters.
Sign the petition here.
News Credit: Scottish Financial News
Photo Credit: Scottish Financial News
