Recycling Incentive Introduced on Rome’s Metro System
Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - 14:36:25
Commuters and tourists who visit the Italian capital of Rome will soon be able to get around the city without paying for the privilege thanks to a scheme being rolled out on the metro system, according to TRT World.
The core concept is that kiosks set up in a number of high-profile stations serving Rome’s underground train network will accept plastic bottles in place of cash as a form of payment for tickets to travel.
A small-scale trial of the project was launched earlier this year, and hundreds of thousands of plastic bottles were successfully collected for recycling as a result, so it is being seen by those running it as worth pursuing on a wider scale.
The machines can accommodate up to 20,000 recyclable bottles in any given 24-hour period, and following the launch of the original trial, commuters would deliberately choose to bring bags full of up to 20 bottles with them at the start of their journey in order to take advantage of the offer of free travel.
Rome is especially well suited to take advantage of this scheme, since its own waste collection and recycling infrastructure is not always fit for purpose, and this new approach is an incentive which actively benefits consumers rather than simply relying on their own benevolence to take off.
Council spokesperson Claudio Perelli explained that by offering people a tangible reward for their recycling efforts, it did not actually matter whether or not the individuals in question were interested in saving the planet, since the opportunity to save a bit of cash is actually far more universally appreciated.
It will be interesting to see whether this scheme is adopted in other major urban centres, as it could make a real difference to recycling rates worldwide.
Latest News
Wednesday, May 13, 2020 - 10:32:41
Every industry around the world has been impacted by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and recycling has been especially affected as a result of force [...]
Read More
Wednesday, May 6, 2020 - 21:33:36
Apple has pulled back the curtains on the all-new iPhone SE, bringing with it a raft of eco-friendly design features which aim to improve the green cr [...]
Read More
Wednesday, April 29, 2020 - 21:32:00
Researchers from New Zealand have demonstrated a new recycling solution which could help companies to reclaim rare materials from smartphones, PCs and [...]
Read More