Transport

Rome mayor blasts vandals of plastic recycling machine

17 Sep, 2019

Rome commuters recycle more than 350,000 plastic bottles since July.

Rome mayor Virginia Raggi has blasted the "incivili" who vandalised one of the city's three recycling machines which exchange plastic bottles for bus and metro tickets.

Rome's public transport company ATAC has launched an investigation into the vandalism which involved somebody inserting their hand into the machine and pulling out the cables required to recycle bottles.

The incident took place in the early afternoon at the recycling machine located near a security cabin inside the entrance to the busy Piramide station.

Rome has three such recycling machines which accumulate credits (5 cent per bottle) for the purchase of bus and metro tickets through the MyCicero and TabNet apps.

The experimental ecobonus system is in place for one year at three metro stations: Cipro on the A line, Piramide on the B line, and S. Giovanni on the C line.

The pilot project has been a tremendous success, with commuters queuing up to recycle more than 350,000 plastic bottles since the system was introduced in late July.

The mayor posts regular social media updates on the popular initiative and even brought a delegation from Malaysia to see the "mangiaplastica" machine in action.

Photo La Repubblica