Earn Re 1 for crushing a plastic bottle in Karnataka from this World Environment Day
Bengaluru: Soon, an empty water bottle that you trash as waste could fetch you money! All you need to do is drop those bottles into a reverse vending machine (RVM) set up by urban local bodies at various locations in your city.
The RVMs will not just crush and shred the bottle, but also give you Rs 1 in return per bottle. Determined to make Karnataka plastic-free, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) planned to unveil these RVMs in front of Vidhana Soudha during Environment Day celebrations on June 5.
Buoyed by a pilot initiative in Hubballi a few weeks ago, the board submitted a proposal to the state govt for installation within the limits of city corporations and municipalities.
PM Narendraswamy, chairperson of KSPCB, said, "If you incentivise anything, people will respond to it. Earlier, there was hardly any response to shredding machines as there were no incentives. But now the machines will give you a coin (Re 1) for every bottle that you deposit.
If you do not drop, at least the rag pickers who collect these bottles will drop them at these machines as they will get money."
Swamy clarified the machines will be installed by its manufacturer and hence, will not cost anything to the govt. "We only need to provide them with space and operational requirements. For them, the crushed, shredded plastic will be the revenue," he clarified. KSPCB also claimed it would go plastic-free and would recommend the govt to also embrace plastic-free administration aligning with the United Nations' motto 'End Plastic Pollution' from June 5.
Close on the lines of KSPCB, completing 50 years, a year-long celebration has been planned with a lot of awareness activities.
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