Following the plastic ban imposed in Maharashtra, railway authorities are considering replacing plastic glasses with paper glasses at water vending machines, catering stalls and on-board of trains stalls. The Central Railway (CR) is also aiming to make its stations free of all the plastic items, which have been banned by the state government.
In a meeting which will be held this week between CR officials, railway catering staff, Indian Railway Catering Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) officials and railway station stall owners, a decision to introduce recyclable plastic materials and to completely stop the use of the banned plastic products will be taken.
“The maharashtra government has given a time period to implement the plastic ban. We would be looking at all the available options to replace plastic products. We will implement the ban strictly at all our railway stations. We would also be discussing the installation of recycling machines in the meeting,” said SK Jain, divisional railway manager, CR.
Further, the railways also plan to introduce a Do’s and Don’ts manual with respect to plastic products. The manual would consist of a list of plastic products which cannot be used by the food stall owners at stations.
A senior CR official said “Jingles on avoiding the use of plastic products are also being prepared which will be played at the stations to make commuters aware about the ban and the harmful effects of plastic,” .
Currently, the railways distribute pantry food in plastic containers in the trains and sell products in plastic packets on the stations. Some of these products include plastic water bottles, cups and plastic bags.
The notification issued by the state government on the plastic ban has given a period of three months to the manufacturers, distributors and retailers to dispose of the existing stock of banned plastic materials. Recently, the Bombay high court had refused to stay the state government decision on plastic ban.
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