The city of Rome has an increasing problem with trash: its inhabitants neglect recycling and waste disposal, leading to a lot of littering in the streets. As a way of changing their citizen's behaviour, Rome's authorities have taken an innovative approach. They placed machines in select metro stations that allow users to receive five cents of digital credit for the Roman metro for each plastic bottle returned at the machine. While the three machines are only a step on the way to a better recycling system in Rome, they are well-received and widely used by the local population.

Atac, the public transportation provider in Rome, has launched in 2019 "the more you recycle, the more you travel" (“+Ricicli +Viaggi” ) pilot project that lets people pay for trips on public transports with plastic bottles. Machines have been placed at three Rome metro stations which allow passengers to “earn” public transport tickets by recycling their old plastic bottles.

In 2020 two new machines have been installed. Each bottle recycled is worth the equivalent of five euro cents, Therefore passengers need to recycle 30 bottles to accumulate enough points for a ticket. Seven months after the launch of the project, commuters in Rome have recycled 2.8 million bottles according to the city.