If you have ever wondered about what happened to the old greasy notes you quietly deposited at the bank, here's the answer: they may be all around you, in exotic visiting cards and serving trays, in swanky looking coasters and paperweights.

In fact, you may be walking on some too.

Recycling is the new mantra at the Reserve Bank of India as far as old notes are concerned.

The central bank has launched an intense marketing effort through its regional offices, contacting top companies and chambers of commerce, offering them shredded notes for reuse as fibre to make recycled products.

RBI produces around 5 tonne of currency notes paper briquette per day. Three institutions have already started making recycled products.

The Khadi & Village Industries Commission has launched several items in the market, while the Centre of Science for Villages has developed applications for rural areas. Aurobindo Lamination has developed other uses.

"The biggest hit is the laminated RBI paperweight, which is beautiful and made up old notes worth around Rs 5,800," said a source.

Reportedly, everybody who has seen it wants to own one. The other big sellers are visiting cards, followed by serving trays and coasters. Blame it on the human weakness to flaunt cash!

There is no fixed price for these note briquettes. "It is purely based on the understanding made between the buyer and the seller," said the source.

RBI had a very different solution for disposal of shredded notes till last year. They used to be sold as landfill to civic bodies and private buyers.

One such consignment was accidentally dumped on a road in Kolkata recently, causing great excitement in the city. The technology for recycling old shredded notes was developed by the Nagpur-based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute on an RBI commission.

The commercial utilisation of bio-degradable currency notes briquettes is an extension of RBI's clean note policy.

The policy entails timely withdrawal of soiled currency notes from circulation and disposal of soiled currency notes, which are unfit for circulation, by using state-of-the-art shredding and briquetting system, which sheds notes into very small granules pressed as briquettes to facilitate disposal.

These currency note paper briquettes are bio-degradable, non-polluting and eco-friendly in nature and can be used to make almost anything from paper boards to false ceiling.