Rome metro users to get ticket credit for recycling plastic

(ANSA) - Rome, July 24 - A new initiative in Rome will enable metro users to recycle plastic bottles and earn public transport tickets in the process. Every 30 plastic bottles recycled in the machines provided by Coripet and installed in three stations in the Italian capital will earn a ticket: thus, each bottle will be worth 5 cents. The initiative will begin in the Cipro station on Line A, Priamide on Line B and San Giovanni on Line C and the test phase will last 12 months. The Coripet machines will collect the bottles and transfer the 'points earned' through the My Cicero and TabNet apps. Rome mayor Virginia Raggi said that "we can say we are the first large European capital to introduce this system." A similar system was introduced in Istanbul last year. "The ideal thing would be to consume less single-use plastic and opt for reusable bottles," Environment Minister Sergio Costa from the M5S party said on Facebook. "But, if necessary, from now on in Rome you can trade in bottles for ATAC tickets. This is an experimental project that has been inaugurated today in the capital."