SAMBALPUR: Sambalpur Municipal Corporation (SMC) will install Reverse Vending Machines (RVMs) indifferent parts of the city in order to reduce plastic waste. The installation of the RVMs will help to recycle used plastic bottles and will encourage citizens not to litter.
Sambalpur will be the second civic body in Odisha to install Reverse Vending Machines after Bhubaneswar.
RVMs will be installed at three different locations, including Bus Terminus at Ainthapali, Sambalpur Railway Station at Khetrajpur and Science Park at Burla in the first phase. Three more RVMs will be installed in the second phase.
Subhankar Mohanty, enforcement officer of SMC said that the Request for Proposal (RFP) for installation of machines is already processed. The civic body will select a firm which will be responsible for the supply, installation and the maintenance of RVMs for three years.
Mohanty said that if everything goes as per the plan, machines will be installed at three different locations by the end of January. These machines will operate on electricity. Each unit will have the capacity to crush around 300 plastic bottles per hour. Each machine can crush about 3,000 bottles per day and the crushed bottles can be reused, he added.
To encourage people to use the RVM, the civic body is planning to give gift coupons to the users. Though the final decision will be taken only after installation of RVMs, Mohanty said.