In order to prevent passengers from discarding plastic water bottles at will, another plastic bottle (polyethylene terephthalate) collection machine has been installed at Central Bus Stand.
This is the second machine installed at the location.
A Tiruchi-based PLA group has donated the machine costing around ₹3 lakh. The machine can collect 600 bottles a day. Under the system, passengers should drop empty bottles into the machine placed on a platform.
Upon disposal, the they will have an option: donation or water. Based on it, they can get 350 ml of drinking water. In addition to it, they can also make use of WiFi facility.
Inaugurating the facility on Sunday, N. Ravichandran, Commissioner, Tiruchi Corporation, said the machine would reach its capacity every one hour. The workers employed at Central Bus Stand would remove the bottles frequently. The facility would motivate the passengers to drop bottles only into the plastic recycling machine.
The civic body chief said a similar facility would soon come up at Chathiram Bus Stand and Srirangam. A few leading traders had come forward to sponsor the machines.