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.
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.
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.
