Acting on PM Modi’s call to reduce single-use plastic, large hotel chains like the Marriott and Taj have taken a conscious decision to bring down single-use plastic consumption for a sustainable environment-friendly tomorrow. They will at first eliminate PET bottles on their premises and then reduce the use of single-use plastic altogether. According to some estimates, they consume two million plastic bottles a year.
The JW Marriott hotel property at Delhi’s Aerocity on Monday eliminated the last of its polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, replacing these with QR-coded glass ones from it’s Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based bottling unit.
This 500 room property which on an average consumes 5,479 bottles a day first wants to replicate this model in it’s few select properties and eventually do away with PET bottles at all its properties. Prior to this Indian Hotels Company (IHCL, the Taj group) also went ahead with the decision to eliminate plastic bottles. The latter recently set up bottling units at select hotels in Delhi, Bengaluru, Maldives and Colombo, seeking to replace plastic bottles with glass ones.
Prime Minister while addressing the citizens of the country on the 73rd Independence Day from the ramparts of Red Fort urged people to eliminate the use of single-use plastic. With an aim to prevent environmental degradation, Modi stressed that citizens must buy indigenous products and must strive to make the policy of “Make In India” a success.
“The time for implementing such an idea has come. Teams must be mobilised to work in this direction. A significant step must come out by October 2 (Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary,” he had said.
Moreover, in a bid to carry Modi’s initiative to junk single-use plastic ahead, the Railways have also planned to install 4000 plastic bottle crushing machines at stations. A passenger wanting to use them will have to key in his phone number into the machine and his phone will be recharged. Currently, 160 bottle-crushing machines are available at 128 stations.
The railways have also issued directions that from October 2 this year, single-use plastic will not be used on its premises. Railway Board Chairman V.K. Yadav has also asked railway staff to collect all the used plastic bottles at railway stations and send them for recycling.
Earlier, the ministry had issued instructions to all its vendors and staff across its network to use reusable bags to reduce plastic footprint.
