Change.Org/SwachhRail
Initiative to cleanup endless plastic waste along tracks of Indian Railways
Growing up in an Indian Railways family, I have witnessed the beauty and charm of our railway system. However, recent train rides across India (such as one recent travel from Ernakulam, Kerala in the south to Mumbai, Maharashtra in the west to Haridwar, Uttarakhand in the north and Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh in the east) have been marred by an unimaginable level of plastic trash strewn endlessly alongside tracks. This sight has been profoundly sad and heartbreaking, prompting my search for practical solutions to cleanup, restore our environment and revive the pride and joy associated with travels on Indian Railways.
The volume of single-use plastic waste seen along all railway tracks and stations from coast to coast on all major travel corridors is staggering. A Google image search of "India Railway Track Waste" captures the unimaginable scale of the problem. It poses not only an aesthetic problem but also threatens our precious environment with irreparable damage of non-biodegradable plastics. According to a study by Science Advances, India generates about 26,000 tonnes of plastic waste daily (Source: Science Advances). A significant portion ends up in places where it shouldn't be - like our beloved railways.
Some solutions to address this problem are relatively simple, practical and efficient requiring only a will and a very nominal budget to implement them from the Indian Railways authorities.
A private-public partnership can go a long way to address this expeditiously as well with an "Adopt-A-Railway" or "Adopt-A-Station" scheme for all stations across India. Private entities clean up a segment and in return get to advertise their pre-approved offerings at designated locations within a station.
Another solution is to empower Station Masters at all stations across India to rally local residents to help clear plastics within a 2 to 5mile range of the station on either direction. Remuneration can be in the form of a free train ride vouchers for families or monetary rewards from recycling entities or other viable schemes. Collected plastics can be loaded on to a coach of a train to be transported to regional recycling centers.
A viable technology centric solution could be to attach an industrial strength vaccum cleaner hose on wheels on either side of an already existing "track, line and signal maintenance vehicle" that periodically run on local railway segments and have it suck in plastics within couple of meter distance of railroad tracks. If a shredder can be incorporated the waste volume can be reduced to have it bagged within the maintenance coach. This is much like exsiting and proven mechanised cleaning vehicles used to clear roadside trash.
Government of India and local State Governments can and should insititute sensible regulations to incentivise large multi national corporations to move away from single use plastics to bio-degradable packaging for the myriad snacks and drinks such as potato chips and soft drinks sold by countless vendors across India including at stations.
The Integral Coach Factory in Chennai that manufactures trains for India should consider engineering and incorporating an efficient and simple track side vaccuum cleaning feature on to the wheel frames of select coaches of a train.
Cleaning features can be incorporated in to long distance cargo or goods trains as another possible option.
A longer term solution will be to effectuate behavioral changes in train traveling population to have self pride in a clean railway network by choosing to only buy bio-degradable packages from station or train vendors and refrain from throwing used empty plastic packages or bottles out the window of a running train and instead store it within the compartment for disposal at the next station.
Local politicians such as MLA's, MPs, District Collectors, Tahsildars, Panchayath Presidents and Village Officers can play a significant role in promoting, supporting and facilitating such initiatives in their local constituencies to revive a national spirit of Swachh Bharath at the grass roots level.
Other solutions to help solve this are also being captured and consolidated periodically at the www.swachhrail.org website. Please contribute your own solutions and ideas so that the most promising and economical solution can be implemented by the Indian Railways expeditiously to help save our environment and in turn make Indian Railways the envy of the world.
We need immediate action from the authorities responsible for maintaining cleanliness along these lines - primarily the Ministry of Railways. We urge them to initiate swift and effective cleanup operations targeting this issue specifically.
Key people (from Wikipedia): Narendra Modi (Prime Minister of India); Ashwini Vaishnaw (Minister for Railways); Jaya Varma Sinha, IRTS (Chairperson and CEO);
Let's protect our environment from irreversible damage while reviving the joyous experience that train travel in India needs to represent. Contribute your goodwill, ideas, time and resources to help this cleanup initiative.
S Menon
cs@swachhrail.org