Skip to main content

Commuters in Indonesia can exchange used plastic bottles for free bus trips

The city of Surabaya, Indonesia, is giving free bus rides to commuters who provide used plastic bottles as part of a strategy encourage recycling. This initiative is expected to serve the city’s ambition to eliminate plastic waste by 2020. Citizens can travel on red city buses by dropping off plastic bottles at terminals or can use the bottles to pay for their fares. Reuters says a two-hour bus ticket costs ten plastic cups or up to five plastic bottles, depending on their size. Labels and bo
October 31, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
The city of Surabaya, Indonesia, is giving free bus rides to commuters who provide used plastic bottles as part of a strategy encourage recycling.

This initiative is expected to serve the city’s ambition to eliminate plastic waste by 2020.

Citizens can travel on red city buses by dropping off plastic bottles at terminals or can use the bottles to pay for their fares.

%$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 link-external Reuters false https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-environment-plastics-bus/plastic-to-ride-indonesians-swap-bottles-for-bus-tickets-idUSKCN1MX1OD false false%> says a two-hour bus ticket costs ten plastic cups or up to five plastic bottles, depending on their size.

Labels and bottle caps from the collected bottles are auctioned off to recycling companies. The money earned goes towards running bus operations and funding green spaces in the city in Java, Indonesia’s main island.

Irvan Wahyu Drajad, head of Surabaya’s transportation department, says Indonesia is one of the biggest contributors to plastic waste in the world.
 
“Through this initiative, we hope to raise public awareness on the environment, especially issues that relate to plastic trash,” Wahyu Drajad adds.

Related Content

  • February 20, 2019
    MaaS Market London: year one update from Whim West Midlands
    Almost a year after it came into operation, Transport for West Midlands’ head of smart travel, Chris Lane, will update delegates at the MaaS Market Conference (London 20 and 21 March) on how the Whim West Midlands pilot scheme is working in practice. Introduced in conjunction with MaaS Global, Whim West Midlands is the UK’s first Mobility as a Service platform to go live to the general public and combines public transport (bus and tram) with on-demand taxis and bike sharing. The initial Pay-As-You-Go se
  • November 15, 2018
    Bird enables reports of poorly parked and damaged e-scooters
    Bird is to roll out an app feature which allows people to report poorly parked or damaged electric scooters to the company. It is an attempt to solve one of the biggest bugbears surrounding the deployment of scooters and dockless bikes – the issue of what happens when users abandon or abuse the vehicles. Bird says the app’s new ‘community mode’ will improve parking and safety in the cities where it operates, such as Portland and Salt Lake City. The company will use reports to reposition poorly parked e-
  • March 21, 2018
    SMA launches urban barrier safety cover
    Safety-aware motorcyclists will welcome the newest addition to urban barrier protection devices from Italian manufacturer SMA. The company’s reflective aluminium safety cover for its SMA 50 City short barrier was launched this year and can be a life-saver, said Stefano Caterino, head of marketing. Instead of a motorcyclist or cyclist hitting the barrier end, the person stands a better chance of glancing off at an angle and sustaining far fewer injuries than hitting the right angles of the barrier. It is
  • June 12, 2014
    CHAMP final workshop
    The European Cycling Heroes Advancing sustainable Mobility Practice (CHAMP) project will come to an end in September 2014. The final workshop takes place in Gent, Belgium on 11-12 September. The CHAMP project brings together leading cities in the field of cycling. Within the project, they have looked at innovative ways to further boost cycling in their cities and enhance local policies. CHAMP has developed and tested a performance analysis tool, building on self-analysis as well as peer review by ot