plastic £5 notes

Therefore there shouldn't be so many sheep. Stop eating meat and buying wool, and the problem would be solved.

duramjen - all sheep are shorn except for Wiltshire Longhorns which self shear (as it were) - if sheep are not shorn they over heat and much much worse get maggot infestations especially around the anus where maggots get in and eat the sheep alive from the inside out - I have actually seen this when I failed to spot the strike in time - believe me it was one of the most horrible things I have ever had to deal with.

I don't buy wool because it makes me itch.
I also don't like the idea of wearing any animal products. I don't find it fine to wear leather shoes. I have one pair of boots and two pairs of shoes. I am sitting here in cotton socks at the moment.
Also, they are not two separate breeds; sheep bred for wool are also eaten. It tends to be the females kept for shearing and breeding and the males sold for lamb.

Can I ask durhamjen why you do not buy wool? Shearing sheep is very good husbandry and prevents some nasty problems - tick and maggot infestation to name just two.

Like rosesarered I too would like to know why some vegetarians find it fine to wear leather shoes.

I think in our world today it must be almost impossible to avoid everything we would rather was not there.

Made from recycled ethically farmed haggis I believe Elegran.

I await complaints that the new pound coin when it comes out in March 2017 makes holes in people's pockets.
Of course, I will just rubbish the complaint.

It's just another unnecessary use of animal products. I would find it extremely inconvenient to keep refusing £5 notes, and I'm sure shop workers and others would not be too happy about it. I don't understand why people who don't care about it feel they need to object because people who mind have asked for an alternative to be found.

Surely it is possible to refuse to have the £5 note and ask for coins instead if you feel that strongly? Or will that lead to a mass wail of "Why should we have to refuse it?"

is not true that most notes have traces of cocaine and other drugs on them?

One of the reasons for the start of the Indian Mutiny in 1857 was the rumour put about that pig tallow was used in greasing the cartridges of the Enfield rifle (which upset the Moslems) and beef tallow (which upset the Hindus) = thus resulting in millions of deaths over the following 10 years.

By comparison I think we can live with minute traces on a £5 note.

Scottish polymer bank notes are vegan-friendly. Just thought you'd like to know.
Bank of Scotland, RBS, Clydesdale

There are serious ethical problems associated with palm oil as well as with tallow.

grumppa,

I have a feeling that polymers for other uses may include traces of the same stuff.

Why?
What else is embedded in the material?

Tallow is the least of your worries when it comes to bank notes.

Never thought about packaging, Jalima. What packaging did you have in mind?
I try and avoid excess packaging, but I can't think of any packaging that could have animal ingredients in it.
It took a long time before we could have decent non-animal shoes. Clothing, I never buy silk or wool.
My youngest granddaughter has just got her first pair of Doc Martens. She's nine, and she loves them because they make her feel grown up like her cousins.

Why not just refuse notes, use a bank card or credit card and coins until the notes are taken out of circulation and replaced - if they ever are.

Or is that too simple? Many people use a card for everything these days and don't carry cash.

The Bank of England didn't know about the minute trace of tallow until very recently, so I don't think you can blame them too much for its presence, or for not thinking earlier about vegetarians and vegans. Let's face it, you don't automatically think of a connection between treasury notes and vegans.

What about packaging?
Or do vegans buy only unpackaged food?

Genuine question.

wtkr.com/2016/11/30/these-countries-have-animal-fat-in-their-money/

So what happens when people who object to the use of a minute amount of tallow in the notes want to go overseas - other countries use the same source of polymer to make their notes.
Will they just not go?

New Scottish ones do not have tallow in them, so it is possible to make them without.
I'd much rather they had thought about vegetarians and vegans, as well as all the religious groups that do not like it and are signing the petition. Much rather not need a petition about it.
However, minorities don't count, do they? The majority don't care, so that's okay, they can be as sarcastic as they like.

I think most soaps are made with palm or other oils, not tallow.

Ah the onward march of civilisation! That which provided a cheap source of light for the working classes in bygone days is now shunned by "right" thinking progressive vegetarians and vegans, but welcomed as an excuse for yet another petition

The better-off Tories, meanwhile, will realise with satisfaction that the tallow in the new plastic fiver will increase its efficiency as a spill for lighting their decorative Christmas candles.

So it's win-win all round. Well done the Bank of England!

Since soap manufacturers have had to put ingredients lists on the packaging, very few use sodium tallowate. I wonder why that is.

Tizliz, although most notes will probably have traces of animal products on them, this is actually being made with it embedded in them.

Over 100,000 signatures already.

Coal tar soap doesn't contain tallow