Rome: 30 plastic bottles for a train ticket

In Rome, public transport passengers can redeem old plastic bottles for subway and bus tickets.

The passengers put the plastic bottles in a vending machine, which loads money for tickets onto the phone via an app.

For each bottle there are five cents via the system "+ Ricicli + Viaggi" (Recycle and Travel). For 30 bottles you get a ticket for a single trip.

So far, there are only three metro stations such machines - but in front of them were always formed long lines, it says at the Roman transport companies Atac. One month after the system was introduced in the summer, 100,000 discarded plastic bottles had already been taken, with more than 20,000 bottles a day now. The system will soon be established at other stations.

Ecobonus per acquistare biglietti ATAC, Stazione di San Giovanni, Piramide, Cipro: accumuli crediti inserendo bottiglie di plastica nelle macchinette; + Ricicli + Viaggi, mediante le app di @ myCiceroApp e @TABNETapp pic.twitter.com/RcGenupHb7

Italy's capital has chronic garbage problems. Almost everywhere in the city, the tons overflow daily. At least as problematic as the waste is public transport. The metro network has only three lines. The buses are often outdated, fires due to poor maintenance are not uncommon. But the tickets are cheap: each trip you pay € 1.50. In Italy, there is currently no nationwide system for returnable bottles, which would be comparable to the German system.

Rome is the first European capital with such a system, said Mayor Virginia Raggi. A similar system exists for example in Indonesia or the Turkish capital Istanbul. Also in Mexico there was a few years ago, there was a similar creative but not so sustainable possibility to get a train ticket for local traffic. Instead of collecting bottles, the Mexicans had to squat - so the state wanted to fight against overweight. For ten squats there was a train ticket - an idea that did not prevail.