Hong Kong's financial authorities expect that the new money will be harder to counterfeit, and also more durable, more hygienic, and more environmentally friendly than paper money.
Plastic banknotes are already in use in 26 countries around the world, including Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Romania, and New Zealand. Although the cost of producing one such banknote is on average one and a half times more expensive than its paper equivalent, increased durability and longer lifespan more than cover these costs. Moreover, despite the growing number of users of plastic cards and electronic payment systems, the money supply in all developed countries is actively increasing, and consequently, the costs of issuing and disposing of worn-out banknotes are also rising.
At the same time, the production of plastic banknotes is not complicated: images are applied to a thin transparent plastic base; the base itself is formed through complex technological processes so that so-called security elements appear on certain areas of the banknote. Thanks to these fundamentally new security systems for plastic money, the business of counterfeiting banknotes in Australia and New Zealand, for example, has practically disappeared.
It is also believed that plastic money is more hygienic. Recently, scientists found a large number of dangerous bacteria on paper banknotes and concluded that paper money is a favorable environment for the spread of diseases.