The Pune Municipal Corporation has decided to install ATM’s to collect garbage in various parts of the city for collection of recyclable waste such as plastic bottles, glass bottles, metal cans, plastic wrappers, etc. This is being done in association with a Delhi based start-up, Ecomaxgo.
A total of 40 Swachh ATM’s will be set up in phases. Such ATM’s have already been installed in Delhi and Varanasi. Citizens will be paid Re. 1 for empty plastic bottles and Rs 3 for glass bottles. The move will also help reduce the load on door-to-door garbage collection.
All the transactions will be cashless and the money will be transferred to the citizen’s bank account provided they have registered their mobile number. Citizens will be acquainted with the process by a digital display on the machine.
In addition to installation of machines, the PMC also intends on providing various other facilities like Free Wi-Fi, purchase of new SIM cards, facility to open a bank account and purchase of tickets for cinema, etc at the same place.