The Railways is taking steps to go green and trying to combat the menace of plastic bottles littering station premises.
How many of us casually throw plastic water bottles in random places, inside railway stations? The thought probably stems from the feeling “I am leaving this, but someone else will pick it up.”
Well now, you can dispose of plastic bottles responsibly and what’s more—earn money while doing so. According to a report in the Financial Express, the South Western Railway, in an effort to remove the ‘scourge’ of plastic waste, has set up bottle crushers at many railway stations under the Bengaluru division including the KSR City Station, Yeshwantpur Station, Cantonment Station and Krishnarajpuram Station.
What’s more, each bottle you drop into the crusher will earn you ₹ 5, in your e-wallet via PayTM. So, drop a bottle into the crusher, enter your mobile number on the machine, and earn your money!
RS Saxena, the Divisional Railway Manager (Bengaluru Railway Division), inaugurated the facility at the KSR Railway Station, on World Environment Day. He mentioned that the Railways has tied up with a private firm, to set up automatic bottle crushing machines in major railway stations across Bengaluru division. This step is to prevent travellers from throwing used plastic bottles on the tracks, or in the station premises.
South Western Railway’s Mysuru Railway Station, and the railway stations of Ahmedabad, Pune and Mumbai, already have these bottle crushing machines.
The machine is the size of a refrigerator and can crush around 5000 bottles daily. Once the bottles are dropped inside the machine, they will be completely crushed and released as fine plastic pieces. The crushed plastic can be sold as scrap in the market, or, as in the case of the Western Railway Zone, used to make bags and t-shirts.
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This green initiative comes close on the heels of others, like running a railway station on solar power, or introducing e-tickets or doing away with reservation charts. Kudos to the Indian Railways for its efforts to become more sustainable.
(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)
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