Indian railway passengers aren't exactly known for their exemplary standards of cleanliness. As trains speed through the subcontinent, passengers frequently hurl plastic bottles and bags out of the windows. Every day, approximately 6,289 tons of plastic waste finds its way onto India's railway tracks, according a report in 2009 by the Comptroller and Auditor General.



This plastic waste chokes drains or becomes embedded in the soil, lowering agricultural productivity.



Following a public interest litigation in May seeking a blanket ban on the use and sale of plastic products on railway platforms across the country, the National Green Tribunal has asked the central government to develop a plan to combat the problem.



The Ministry of Railways, the Railway Board and the Ministry of Environment and Forests have been given two weeks to sit with other central government agencies to create a concrete plan to control plastic waste on the tracks.



Delhi's efforts

Experts say that the three railway stations of Delhi face the greatest volume of plastic waste, both in the railway stations and along the track. The three major stations in the Capital generate 6,758 kilograms of plastic waste – per day.



Approximately 520 trains originate from these stations every day, carrying 15 lakh passengers. There are 42 platforms in the city, with 146 vendors at these stations to serve the needs of travellers.



Platform vendors package their wares in plastic carry bags. In addition, plastic bottles and food packages are thrown on the tracks because of the limited number of dustbins at these stations. New Delhi railway station generates 4,358 kilograms of plastic waste a day. Old Delhi creates 1,428 kilograms, while Hazrat Nizamuddin station generates 972 kilograms, according to a Central Pollution Control Board study.



Northern Railway says that one important step has already been taken to control waste production. In 2010, it set up a bottle-crushing machine at New Delhi station with the help of an NGO called Chintan.



“We have set up two machines, one for cutting bottles from the cap area and the other for crushing the remaining part of the bottle,” said Nidhi Mishra. “Each day, nearly 6,000 bottles are crushed and sent for recycling.”



Nagpur no better

Despite being a small station, with only 182 trains and 1.5 lakh passengers travelling through it every day, the Nagpur railway station generates 613 kilograms of plastic waste every day.



A study by the International Journal of Advances in Engineering Research found that only the premium-priced Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains have proper refuse collection procedures, possibly because their air-conditioned compartments have sealed windows. Railway authorities do not have a programme to clean up the tracks, contending that they lack requisite man-power.



Astonishingly, Nagpur station has only 18 dustbins, said professor LB Bhuyar, head of the department of Mechanical Engineering at the Ram Meghe Institute of Technology and Research, and one of the authors of the study published by the engineering journal. “The waste bins are barely big enough to handle the solid waste of a household," he said. "Moreover, they are cleaned only once a day. Hence they are always overflowing and even people with some civic sense end up littering,”



Plastic items like water bottles and bags contain high levels of toxic hydrocarbons, said Ravi Agarwal of the NGO Toxic Links. Heavy metals such as lead, mercury, chromium, cadmium are all released through the mixing of domestic and commercial/industrial plastic waste. “These are very harmful for the environment and cause soil degradation,” he said.



Southern example

Southern Railway launched a massive cleanliness drive in June. Railway officials say stations across Tamil Nadu are being painted, while garbage accumulated on platforms and along railway tracks is being cleared.



“The objective is to ensure that the passengers experience clean ambiance while also ensuring that the environment is protected and no solid waste is left to decompose,” a senior railway official said.



According to instructions given to the officials, divisional railway managers have to inspect one station in their division every day. General managers must supervise the drive, apart from making periodic and surprise inspections.



The administration has also involved the scouts and guides, college students and members of self-help groups in campaigns to create awareness among passengers on keeping platforms and trains clean.



