Indian girl in Dubai creates environmental awareness, helps recycle e-waste

A 15-year-old Indian girl in Dubai has launched a campaign through which she has helped collect more than 25 tonnes of e-waste for recycling in more than four years, a media report said on Friday.

Riva Tulpule, the Class 10 student of GEMS Modern Academy, says that many people dump old devices and appliances in the general waste, creating bigger problems of waste and environment. She says that she is making efforts to reduce e-waste and ensure that people take up recycling options instead of dumping their appliances into the bin.

<em>Gulf News</em> reported that Riva got in touch with Dubai-based EnviroServe – one of the largest electronics recyclers and processors in the world, to hand over the collected items. These included over 2,000 broken laptops, tabs, mobile phones, printers and keyboards.

Her campaign, WeCareDXB, has enlisted volunteers after it successfully raised awareness via social media platforms.

"When we were moving house, I had asked my mom why we can't we just dispose the items we don't need. She told me they need to be tacked in a special way but we were not sure exactly how to go about it. So that made me curious and I decided to do some research into it, which led me to this cause," the <em>Gulf News</em> report quoted the teen as saying.

During the latest collection round in December 2020, over 60 students from 15 schools had signed up for the campaign.

<em>(With inputs from IANS)</em>.