Thursday 24 August 2017

Medellín to encourage residents to pay for transport by recycling

Medellín in Colombia will begin in September a pilot scheme allowing people to exchange plastic bottles, glass or cans for metro transport credit. The scheme will begin with one functioning machine in the Universidad station, which will recharge your Civic Card or transport card as it receives cans or bottles, El Colombiano reported on 24 August. "The machine has no transaction limits," Luis  Felipe Restrepo, a spokesman for Ciclo, the firm making the machines, told the daily. "That means in each transaction, the user can exchange anything from a glass or plastic bottle, or a can, and get 50 pesos in credit," he said. An underground ticket in Medellín typically costs around 2,000 pesos (just over 0.5 euros), which Restrepo said amounted to "more or less 40 bottles." He added the machine could receive PET bottles of up to three litres, and would pay more for bigger bottles. Bottles he said, must be "in shape" and "not too mangled... they do not have to be totally washed, but must be without their content."