"+Ricicli +Viaggi" makes it possible to pay for metro rides with plastic bottles
The Roman public transport provider, Atac, in partnership with Coripet (Italian Consortium for PET recycling), has launched +Ricicli +Viaggi (the more you recycle, the more you travel), a pilot scheme where riders can pay for travel with PET bottles.
PET collection machines have been installed - to begin with - in three of Rome's metro stations, where citizens can deposit their PET plastic bottles (from 0.5 to 2 litres), thus receiving € 0.05 in credit for each bottle, which makes a single € 1.50 journey worth 30 bottles.
Citizens acquire credit on the myCicero or TabNet apps, which they can then use to buy metro and/or bus tickets (100-minute, 24/48/72-hour, monthly tickets).
The objective of the initiative is double:
- promoting plastic recycling and
- promoting public transportation.
For the moment, three PET collection machines are in place in the Cipro metro A, Piramide metro B and San Giovanni metro C stations. After this year-long trial, Atac, in agreement with Rome's administration, will review its results to see if this pilot project is worth being extended to a larger number of stations.
The July 2019 launch by Rome's Mayor Virginia Raggi brought worldwide attention to the initiative, to plastic recycling and, more widely, to circular economy. Within months, Istanbul, Quayaquil (Equador) and Surabaya (Indonesia) have already followed in Rome's footsteps.