Hungary Is Literally Burning Money To Keep Their Citizens Warm
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The Hungarian Central Bank is issuing stacks of old currency notes to its impoverished citizens across the country, so as to allow its citizens to burn the notes in order to keep warm during one of Europe’s deadliest cold snaps.
For the past four years, the Hungarian government has been recycling nearly $1 billion worth of unusable notes into briquettes, which are then sent to several charities as a form of heating fuel.
The Hungarian Central Bank is issuing stacks of old currency notes to its impoverished citizens across the country, so as to allow its citizens to burn the notes in order to keep warm during one of Europe’s deadliest cold snaps.
For the past four years, the Hungarian government has been recycling nearly $1 billion worth of unusable notes into briquettes, which are then sent to several charities as a form of heating fuel.
According to AFP, the donation help save charities nearly 50,000 to 60,000 forints ($238-$265) a month in electricity bills, which is a “considerable sum in this time of crisis,” said Krisztina Haraszti, the head of a centre for autistic children in the impoverished northeastern town of Miskolc.
[quote]”It’s a very useful charitable act, a vital aid for our foundation because we can save part of our heating costs,” added Haraszt, whose centre has received nearly four tonnes of compressed old notes from the Hungarian Central Bank every month since September.[/quote]In addition, examinations done by the central bank’s cash logistics centre discovered that the heating properties of the shredded currency briquettes were similar to those brown coal – meaning that they were essentially a like-for-like substitute and could be used in boilers that use mixed fuel as well.
According to The Telegraph, the notes were simply burnt in the past. But the cash logistic centre decided to invest in a machine that could allow them to compress the notes into briquettes for better heating efficiency.
“For the central bank, corporate social responsibility is an important thing,” said Barnabas Ferenczi, the head of the cash logistics centre.
[quote]“That’s why we thought that since we destroy approximately 40 or 50 tons of currency every year, this thing can be useful for charities that have a problem finding fuel for burning.”[/quote]Every year, the central bank takes a quarter of its notes out of circulation and print new money to replace the unusable and old currency.
The old notes are then converted into briquettes under a tight security procedure, where the people working on the process are made to wear pocket-less clothes.
The institutions are chosen they make bids for the briquettes. This year, some 20 organisations made a pitch.
The central bank then issues the briquettes to chosen institutions, which must make a pitch in order to receive the notes. The central bank only has one criterion: that the organisations chosen have no public debt.
Watch Hungarians Burning Through Their Cash:
