The average life of Russian banknotes is 2.5 years. A banknote is considered out of use when the image on it has faded by 8%. In Soviet times, old money was steamed and processed into pulp for new use. But this method was too expensive and dirty from an ecological point of view, so another way has been found.
The central bank has chosen the technology of shredding banknotes into small pieces with subsequent burial in landfills. The shredding operation is performed automatically when a specially designed machine detects a bad bill during the sorting process.
