BUCHAREST, Thursday 22 July 2010 (AFP) - Romanian authorities do not merely bin banknotes withdrawn from circulation, they turn them into dustbins, a central bank official said Thursday.

"The central bank processes roughly 4.5 million banknotes daily, of which 1.2 percent are deteriorated and must be withdrawn from circulation," the official said on condition of anonymity.

"These notes are shredded and delivered to a local waste recycling company that turns them into dustbins."

Romania is the only European country to have replaced paper banknotes by polymer ones, starting in 2000.

Although manufacturing them is "slightly" more expensive, plastic notes last six times longer than paper ones, according to the central bank.