Rajkot: The reverse vending machine (RVM), which Rajkot Municipal Corporation had installed with great fanfare in September in the city, after faltering for some time has stopped functioning altogether 15 days ago. When the RMC installed the machine at Kisanpara Chowk near Racecourse, it claimed credit for becoming the first civic body to do so in Gujarat. A RVM is a recycling device that crushes plastic bottles and generates discount coupons for users.A company from New Delhi had won the contract from the civic body to install 10 RVMs in various places in the city. It installed the first one at Kisanpara Chowk which now lies wrapped in a cloth. Impressed by the RMC’s initiative, civic bodies of Ahmedabad and Vadodara had approached it. RMC sources said the civic body failed to popularize the RVMs among the people and it fell into disuse.It was a great concept of reducing plastic waste. People would have embraced the concept had an awareness created about it. There was every chance of its success because the RVM generated discount coupons that can be easily exchanged at shopping malls, multiplexes, eateries, ice cream parlours and showrooms, but lethargy killed it, RMC sources added.Municipal commissioner Banccha Nidhi Pani said, “It is a temporary problem. The RVM will start functioning within next three days.”

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