The Railways is planning to install plastic bottle crushing machines in its major stations as the national transporter is grappling with the problem of mounting plastic waste generated by it.

With huge quantities of plastic used in stations, mostly water bottles and packaged drinks, the railways wanted to crush them at the station premises and give it to plastic manufacturers for recycling.

Crushing units of refrigerator-size will be installed at the exit gates of railway stations and platforms so that passengers can dump empty bottles in it, said an official of the national transporter.

In the first phase, such units will be installed in about 1,000 stations and later the facility will be extended to other stations. The railway network has around  3,700 stations.

Lack of proper disposal mechanism for bottles forces the passengers to throw them in the station premises or on tracks, and it finally ends up in drains leading to its choking, said the official.

At present plastic bottles are collected manually, mostly by cleaning staff.

A plastic bottle crushing unit is a simple machine which breaks up the plastic into fine bits. It is later recycled, the official said.

At present plastic waste like bottles are collected manually, mostly by cleaning staff.

Under corporate social responsibility, some railway stations, including Vododara, Ahmedabad, Secunderabad and Kachiguda, besides a few stations in Mumbai and Pune, have already installed such units, said the official.

To encourage passengers to use this facility, in Vododara innovative measures are being implemented, such as passengers get Rs 5 cash back in Paytm wallet for each bottle inserted into the crushing machine. For getting cash back, the passenger has to enter his mobile number in the machine after putting the bottle.

Recycling minimal

The railways has tasked RITES to award project management consultancy to select agencies to install crushing units at stations.

Increasing plastic waste and its disposal are huge challenges. Of around 25,000 tonnes of plastic generated in the country in a year, only 60% was being recycled, according to Ministry of Environment and Forests.