Nothing is a waste product. A creative mind can turn the waste product into a money making product. When you buy drinking plastic water bottle in Indian railway station, you can still earn Rs 5 after using it.
Yes. You read it right.
Plastic pollution has been increasing day by day. Even though government and environmental activists run awareness campaign on plastic, people are still preferring to use plastic products.
So, to minimize the plastic and to save the environment for future generations, Indian Railways took another step as part of its go-green drive and to beat plastic pollution.
Railways have installed bottle crushers at the Vadodara railway station to minimise plastic waste at the station.Railways have announced that passengers who'll enter their mobile number on the machine after dropping a bottle into it will get cashback of Rs 5 on their Paytm wallet pic.twitter.com/F5vlY9Wwfm
— ANI (@ANI) June 6, 2018
It has installed bottle crushers at the Vadodara Railway Station to minimize plastic waste at its premises.
Plastic bottle crushing machines have already been installed in many railway stations long back. In 2014, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) sponsored bottle crushing machine, a subsidiary of the Indian Railways. The Western Railway (WR) installed a bottle crushing station at Ahmedabad railway station.
But, people are not using it.
So, to encourage people to adopt this habit, Railways announced that, after dropping the bottle into the machine, passengers should enter their mobile number on the machine. So that, they will get a cashback of Rs 5 on their Paytm wallet.
Indian Railways also came up with another solution to plastic pollution. Instead of serving meals in polymer plates, it is planning to serve on eco-friendly, disposable plates made of bagasse.
Bagasse-based Food Packaging
On June 5th, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) launched its trial run of environment-friendly, bagasse-based food packaging on eight select Shatabdi and Rajdhani trains originating from New Delhi.
A Small Step to Beat Plastic Pollution: On #WorldEnvironmentDay, Indian Railways has started using fully biodegradable packages in 4 Shatabadi and 4 Rajadhani trains from Delhi, contributing towards a greener planet. pic.twitter.com/ILcwHN1wgK
— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) June 5, 2018
The IRCTC will now use bagasse based packaging to serve meals. It means the fibrous remains after extracting sugarcane juice to make disposable cutlery and containers.
“Provision will be made to collect the used packaging, which will then be processed for disposal through composting to ensure environmental sustainability,” it said in a statement.
Just like airlines, Railways also will now charge a penalty of up to six-times the stipulated fee for carrying extra luggage in trains without booking them in advance. The luggage, which you want to carry should be presented at the booking station at least 30 minutes before the scheduled departure of the train. If you are booking your accommodation in advance, then you should also book your luggage at the same time.
However, this is not the first initiative. The East Coast Railway has installed a bottle recycling machine in two platforms on the Bhubaneswar railway station. By depositing a discarded bottle, you can get a mobile talk time worth Rs 10. You can avail this facility any number of times, with every plastic bottle dropped into the recycling machine.
South Western Railway (SWR) also installed bottle crushers at KSR city, Cantonment Yeshwantpur, and Krishnarajapuram stations to minimize the plastic water bottles.
It will be good if every railway station in India installs bottle crusher machines. Then I am sure, the plastic pollution will be reduced significantly.
What do you say? Share us in the comments. If you want to know alternatives to plastics for daily use, then read this.
