NavBharat Times' e-waste drive

NavBharat Times, the Hindi daily from the BCCL stable, recently launched a campaign to increase awareness on e-waste management across the Delhi and NCR region. The campaign aimed to reach out to progressive minded and socially responsible readers through editorials on the subject, along with e-waste collection drives in schools.

The first leg of the campaign began on September 1, during which it ran editorials on e-waste in the Delhi and NCR and online editions of the paper for three weeks. It also used its social media presence on Facebook to promote the campaign. The activity culminated with a panel discussion of students and several activists at India Habitat Centre in Delhi.

The Hindi daily collected e-waste from 30 schools in the NCR and 15 schools in Delhi. The e-waste collected through the drive was later sent to recycling centres. NBT plans to continue the drive till December.

For this campaign, NavBharat Times worked in association with Chintan, an NGO specialising in e-waste management and GIZ, a German government agency working towards sustainable development in the society.

Speaking on the campaign, Aman Nayar, DGM, NavBharat Times, says, "E-Waste is a growing concern - with high growth in usage and ownership of consumer durables and electronics, especially mobile phones. Most people dispose them in the regular way of waste disposal that is through trash or to the neighbourhood kabadi. This chain is not geared to properly dispose or re-cycle the components of the durables or electronics goods, causing severe harm to the environment. Through proper disposal of e-waste, which the government has also mandated through its guidelines, we can prevent this from happening."

For the record, the Hindi daily launched its Lucknow edition, which is its fourth edition, in August.