Monday, May 13, 2019

Plastic bottle waste generated at Indian Railways can be reduce with some initiative and modifications




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 actionsText Box: Plastic bottles could take 450 years to decompose naturally (exact time will by product types and environmental conditions).
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.
Text Box: Note – The data presented in this article is based on the secondary research available online and the calculated values are based on the assumption and it is an approximate estimation.
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

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