I had not heard about this trend. Canada is going to plastic bills this year.
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/21/canadian-cash-to-do-away-with-paper/?hpt=hp_c2
Australia had its first plastic banknote in 1988.
That’s a good article. The Slovenian video at the end was especially interesting. But the Canadian note in the picture is slightly different from the ones in the Bank of Canada videos; the curved designs on the short ends are not there.