Mumbai: Now, machines at railway stations to rid platforms, tracks of plastic bottles

Two recycling machines at Churchgate railway station crush plastic bottles. Express

A new addition at the railway stations has managed to not only grab eyeballs of passengers but also helped combat the railways’ littering problem. Beginning last year, the machines that recycle plastic bottles have been placed at major stations on the western line in an effort to get passengers to dispose of plastic and also earn rewards at the same time. Starting with one machine placed at Churchgate station in June last year, there are currently 20 machines near ticket counters at Churchgate, Mumbai Central, Dadar, Bandra, Santacruz, Andheri and Goregaon stations.

Resembling a vending machine, it features directions to place a plastic bottle into a conveyor belt, which then crushes and deposits the residue at the bottom. “You then have thirty seconds to decide what you want as reward,” said Gandhi Murugesh, who operates two machines at the Churchgate railway station. He added that passengers can choose between a discount coupon for the departmental store chain Sahakari Bhandar and cash back while booking flight tickets and state transport bus tickets using the mobile application Paytm. “You can also choose to donate your reward,” he said. The machines have been developed by Harish Karande & Sons, and the project is monitored by the Wockhardt Foundation for the Western Railways.

While the machines have the capacity to store 5000 crushed bottles, Gandhi said that he assists at least 200 passengers to use the machine everyday. “A lot more people come on Sundays when the station is full,” he said. The situation is similar at Andheri station, where Vijay More simultaneously fields questions about the size and shape of bottles that machines will accept while also directing others find the right platform. “It is good that people are putting bottles in the machine rather than throwing them in the station premises,” he said.

Ravinder Bhakar, chief public relations officer, Western Railways, said that there has been a marked difference in the garbage situation. “We installed the machines after getting complaints that empty bottles were being filled with water and being sold at stalls. And the other reason was that bottles thrown on railway tracks enter drains and choke them. So during monsoons, we face a lot of difficulties,” he said. The recycled plastic he said, he sent to firms that manufacture shirts and bags. “We identified stations on the basis of footfall and long distance trains before installing the machines, now those stations have seen a decline in littering of plastic,” he added.