Bhubaneswar: Passengers can get talk-time of Rs 10 every time they would dump one plastic bottle in any of the two recycling machines that the East Coast Railway has installed on the Bhubaneswar railway station premises.

The railway's move to install the plastic bottle-recycling machines aims to avoid plastic waste generation on the station's premises.

The machines were installed at platform Nos. 1 and 6 of the station.

A railway official said the machines would accept plastic bottles of capacity between 200ml and 2 litres. "The recycled bottles will be supplied to the fibre-manufacturing units, which will use them for making carpets, grocery bags and clothes. Besides, these can be used for manufacturing of plastic items such as dustbins and toilet cabinets as well," said P.S. Tomar, the railway's coaching depot officer.

In order to encourage the passengers to use the machines, talk-time worth Rs 10 per bottle will be given to them on their free mobile app charge wallet. "After one puts the bottle inside the machine, he or she will be asked to give his or her phone number. After giving the phone number, the person will get a message. He or she can redeem it later through the mobile app," said a railway official.

The move is seen as the railway authorities' initiative in streamlining plastic waste management under their jurisdiction. "These will definitely help in improving the efficiency in waste management and reduce transportation and fuel burning by around 10 times for the municipal authorities. The machines also enable the materials to be used directly as raw material for recycling and will help in reducing use of water (approximately 7 litres per kilogram) which is required in the traditional method," said the official.

On April 9, two such machines were installed at Puri railway station on experimental basis.

"After getting good response and support from passengers at Puri railway station, we decided to install such facilities at Bhubaneswar railway station - one among the most crowded stations in the state. Similar machines will also come up at other railway stations in future," said a railway official.