Sakchi bus stand is littered with plastic bottles and cans these days as a recycling machine installed there in February hasn’t been working for weeks.

The defunct reverse vending machine at Sakchi private bus terminus is one of three that were installed by Jamshedpur

Notified Area Committee (JNAC), the other two still working at Sitaramdera bus terminus and Bistupur market.

“When the machine was installed at the Sakchi terminus we had hoped that plastic bottles thrown here and there would be a thing of the past. However, this machine has been developing technical problems since the last few months,” said Dilip Jha, general secretary of the Shikshit Berojgar Mini Bus Association.

Jha said they had intimated JNAC officials a number of times, but no action had been taken.

“Hence these days, the Sakchi terminus is littered with plastic bottles thrown around by passengers,” said the general secretary of the association that coordinates operations of 120 town buses on 11 routes, carrying over 50,000 passengers daily.

Spread over 2.5 acre, the Sakchi terminus is on Sakchi-Bistupur Main Road opposite Jama Masjid.

Each machine, set up by Delhi based firm Zeleno, costs nearly Rs 1.8 lakh. It can recycle over 600 PET bottles and aluminium cans a day.

Installation of three such machines was a modest but good beginning for the steel city that generates over 15 tonne plastic waste daily.

After recylcing bottles or cans, the machines generate a receipt that can be redeemed for discounts at select retail outlets.

“The machines are functional at the long-distance bus terminus in Sitaramdera and at Bistupur market. However, it seems the authorities are not interested in repairing the machine at the Sakchi bus stand which sees huge footfalls,” said Laxmi Kumari, a student of Graduate School College for Women.

“We have no option but to dump bottles in dustbins. Some do not even bother to throw them in bins. They simply drop them on the road. With discount coupons as an incentive we used to recycle plastic bottles in the reverse vending machine,” said the Golmuri resident.

JNAC city manager Shakil Ahmed Mehdi, who looks after waste management in the steel city, admitted that the Sakchi recylcing machine was malfunctioning.

“We were informed that the reverse vending machine wasn’t working a few days back. I have asked the private company to get it repaired. It will be done soon,” he said, adding that the firm was meant to maintain the machines for five years.