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

  • Swarco features Solidplus glass beads and Eurotherm markings
    March 19, 2018
    Visitors to the two Swarco stands are in for a ‘fireworks of innovation’ and a scintillating virtual reality (VR) experience where they can enter a three-dimensional Swarco World, based on advanced gaming technology. Swarco improves quality of life by making the travel experience safer, quicker, more convenient and environmentally sound, and the company’s stands and presentation will fully underline these objectives.
  • Beat to bring ride-hailing service to Mexico City
    November 19, 2018
    Beat, a Daimler ride-hailing firm, is opening offices in Mexico City during the first quarter of 2019 and expects to recruit thousands of drivers. Beat says the move is part of a strategy to expand its presence in Latin America. The service and user app are currently available in Lima (Peru), Santiago (Chile), and Bogota (Colombia). Nikos Drandakis, founder and CEO of Beat, says the company initially deployed it service in Mexico City five years ago but did not have the resources at the time to succe
  • Car2Go to halt carsharing operations in Toronto
    May 29, 2018
    Car-sharing group Car2Go is suspending operations in Toronto, Canada, because of what it sees as restrictive regulations introduced by the city’s authorities. Toronto City Council is introducing its own free-floating carshare pilot on June 1 which Car2Go says makes its service ‘inoperable’. In a letter to users, Car2Go’s North America CEO Paul DeLong says that companies taking part in Toronto’s new pilot will be charged $1,499.02 per vehicle and that many streets which operate a residents’ parking permit
  • Network of associations
    December 18, 2015
    Snowmageddon response sweeps award, New push for seamless European travel, Young professionals group launched at ITS UK and Green transport initatives