PBOC leads way in quest for 'clean money'

The People's Bank of China regards its bills as the country's business cards, so every effort is made to ensure they remain clean and undamaged, report Cui Jia in Nanjing and Yancheng, Jiangsu province, and Chen Jia in Beijing.

On Nov 5, workers at a biomass power plant in Yancheng city, in East China's Jiangsu province, opened the door of a truck and watched as 34 metric tons of blocks of shredded, compressed green paper tumbled to the ground. The blocks were pushed together to form a small mountain, next to several other teetering piles of finely shredded paper, this time red in color.

The bright colors meant the piles stood out from the other biomass materials, such as wooden pallets and doors, ready to be burned to generate electricity. Unlike the other waste material, though, the colored piles were special because the blocks were once bills, the green ones were worth 10 yuan ($1.60) each, while the red signified 100 yuan bills.