Mumbai: At a time when the government is working towards its goal of making the country free from single-use plastic items by 2022, Indian Railways is doing its bit to manage the plastic menace at railway stations. After stations in Mumbai, Vadodra, Bengaluru, it is time for Andhra Pradesh and Telagana to welcome the new plastic crushing machines that can scientifically treat the discarded plastic bottles. South Central Railways has installed huge machines at four stations – Kachiguda, Secunderabad and Nizamabad in Telangana and Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh.
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The aim to install these machines is to protect the environment. If any passenger wants to throw the plastic water bottle they can put into this machine where it will crush the water bottles, Uma Shankar, Chief Public Relations Officer of South Central Railways told ANI.
The aim to install these machines is to protect the environment. If any passenger wants to throw the plastic water bottle they can put into this machine where it will crush the water bottle: Uma Shankar, CPRO of South Central Railways #Hyderabad pic.twitter.com/VEqYLIIWkZ
— ANI (@ANI) June 28, 2018
These machines are the size of a refrigerator. The functioning of the machine is quite simple. All one has to do is deposit the Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle into the chute (a sloping channel or slide for conveying things to a lower level). Once the bottle goes inside, a sensor will identify if the material inserted is a plastic bottle or not and will accordingly approve. Each machine has a capacity of crushing around 5,000 plastic bottles per day and the facility can be used multiple times.
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Once the plastic bottles get shredded into millions of plastic pieces, it will be sold as scrap in the market or will be used to manufacture bags and t-shirts.
To ensure that the machines are utilised by the people, the South Central Railway staff will carry out awareness campaigns for the first few weeks and request people to refrain from discarding plastic bottles on railway tracks and instead use the machines.
In Bengaluru, there are plastic crushers installed at many railway stations such as KSR City Station, Yeshwantpur Station, Cantonment Station and Krishnarajpuram Stations. The Bengaluru division had installed these crushers on World Environment Day with an aim to promote this year’s theme of beating plastic pollution.
This green initiative is one of the many initiatives taken by the Indian Railway to contribute to clean up its network and opt for environmentally sustainable waste management. From replacing plastic cutlery with bio-degradable cutlery in Shatabdi and Rajdhani Express trains to installing bio-toilets in more than 55 per cent of the passenger trains, Indian Railways stations are gradually making the eco-friendly switch.
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