Overview
·
The Indian
Railways are the fourth-largest railway network in the world comprising
1,19,630 km of total track and 92,081 km of running track over a route of
66,687 km, with 7,216 stations at the end of 2015-16[1]
·
It
has 115,000 km of track length. It runs more than 13,313 trains
·
In
2015-16, the Indian Railways carried more than 22 million (22000000), passengers
a day or over 8 billion (8000000000) passengers annually.[2]‑[3]
Plastic
waste is now a global problem; the use of plastic in everyday products has been
increased in the recent year so the generation of more plastic waste is
expected. On-the-go lifestyles require easily disposable products, such as water
bottles, but the accumulation of these products has led to increasing amounts
of plastic pollution around the world. As plastic is composed of major toxic
pollutants, it has the potential to cause great harm to the environment in the form of air, water, and land pollution.
There
are 7 different types of plastics based on their resin type. Some of these are
commonly recycled. But if not recycled and left unattended then it will harm the environment.
Polyethylene
Terephthalate (PET) use in the production of bottles which are useful for
different purposes and one of the uses in the packaging of mineral water, many of us
use packaged drinking water on various occasion.
This article is trying to focus on
the plastic bottles waste generated by the passengers during their travel in
Indian railways.
Review of the problem
- Plastics waste contributes significantly to the total
municipal solid waste (MSW) generated in India.
- A Central Pollution Control Board study in 2015
revealed that approximately 25,940
tonnes of plastic waste is generated in India per day, with 60 major cities contributing 4,059 tonnes of plastic waste per day (~8% of MSW).[4]
- In 2009 the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) done
an assessment of plastic waste and its management at railway stations in
Delhi.[5]
- 88.5 Kg at Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station, 1130 Kg
at New Delhi railway station and 262.5 kg at Old Delhi railway station
(Annexure 1)
- In the case of railways waste generation assessment, three
major stations were taken into account. This was based on all waste generated
as platforms and from some trains like Rajdhani
- In 2013 two students done research on the waste
generated at Surat railway station. They have calculated the waste generation form express trains only.[6]
- From pantry car, they have calculated 700 plastic water
pouches, 100 plastic mineral water bottles, and daily express waste was
84200 plastic mineral water bottles per day (Annexure 2).
- In its research, it has mentioned that all this waste is
spread across the length and breadth of the country, contaminating land and soil, and polluting water bodies. It is imperative that the railways draw up an efficient waste management system. It simply cannot continue to pollute the entire country with its solid waste.
- This situation is alarming and hence need to take the serious
actions
Calculations
- As per CPCB calculations, India generates around 25,940
tonnes of plastic waste a day (t/day)[7]-[8].
- If we consider
that only 50 percent passengers that purchase mineral water bottles while
traveling and throw it (either on tracks, bins, railway stations or
anywhere) then the calculated amount of waste empty mineral water bottles generated
would be 110 Tons per day
Table 1 Estimation of the total package
plastic bottles used per day in Indian railways
Daily passengers
|
Annually passengers
|
|
Based
on the data of the year 2015-16
|
Approximately
220,00,000 (220 L)
|
Approximately
800,00,00,000 (8000 L)
|
Considering
50% of passengers use packaged drinking water during their travel and 1 bottle each
passenger
|
110,00,000
(110 L) Plastic bottles daily
|
400,00,00,000
(4000 L) Plastic bottles annually
|
Approximate
weight of empty packaged drinking water bottle is around 10 gms
|
110,00,000
X 10 gms =
|
4000000000
X 10 gms =
|
Total
weight of empty packaged drinking water bottles in grams
|
1,100,00,000
gms
|
40000000000
gms
|
In
Kilograms
|
1,10,000
Kg
|
40000000
Kg
|
In Tons
|
110 Tons
|
40000 Tons
|
Recommendation
- Reduce, Reuse and Recycle Called the “three R’s” (or a key) of waste
management,
this waste hierarchy is the guidance suggested for creating a sustainable
life.
- Reduce – means cut down the uses
- Reuse – means the repeated use
- Recycle – Transform it into raw material that can be
shaped into a new item
- These three R’s rule also applicable to plastic
mineral water bottles management but if the Railway Ministry or the
Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change take certain
initiative/action then the amount of waste of empty mineral water bottles
can be reduced at certain levels.
Step 1 – installation of additional
drinking water (with some filter arrangements) tanks in each passenger bogie.
This tank will be of certain capacities which can be refilled at some designated
railway (in case of long distance trains).
(Assumption – a passenger once generated faith on the
quality of drinking water could buy once a bottle or carry its own bottle and
refill it in the bogies itself (instead of purchasing a new one each time or
getting down at platform)
Step 2 – spreading awareness among the
passengers by advertising it on tickets, websites, through mobile apps,
sticking information material in the bogies.
It was assumed that slowly and steadily people’s mindset
will change and some of them will adopt the practices of refilling of drinking
water during their travel and will not purchase a new bottle every time they
needed. This will also reduce the additional cost on their pockets as well as the demand for plastic bottles. Hence the generation of plastic bottle waste per
capita will minimize and no additional cost will be incurred to recycle it.
Contact
Details:
Dr. Prashant
Rajankar
prashantrajankar@gmail.com
9650745900
Annexure 1
Annexure 2
REFERENCES
[1]https://www.financialexpress.com/india-news/indian-railways-the-weaving-of-a-national-tapestry-recaptures-the-fascinating-history-of-the-countrys-rail-network/815907/
[2]https://www.financialexpress.com/india-news/indian-railways-the-weaving-of-a-national-tapestry-recaptures-the-fascinating-history-of-the-countrys-rail-network/815907/
[3] https://24coaches.com/indian-railways-facts-and-figures/
[4]https://research.rabobank.com/far/en/sectors/fa-supply-chains/Plastic-Waste-Control-in-India.html
[5] http://cpcb.nic.in/openpdffile.php?id=UmVwb3J0RmlsZXMvTmV3SXRlbV8xNTVfRklOQUxfUklURV9SRVBPUlQucGRm
[6] http://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/managing-railway-waste-12913
[7]https://www.news18.com/news/india/india-produces-over-25000-tonnes-of-plastic-waste-a-day-environment-ministry-1618383.html
[8]https://research.rabobank.com/far/en/sectors/fa-supply-chains/Plastic-Waste-Control-in-India.html
