Dubai: Dubai-based 15-year-old Indian girl Riva Tulpule has done an amazing thing. She has launched a campaign, which helped in the recycling of 25 tonne of electronic waste in the Gulf nation. A media report here Friday said the Riva Tulpule is a student of grade 10. She got the idea to start the campaign while clearing out drawers filled with broken devices in 2016, the ‘Gulf News’ reported.
While shifting to a new house a few years ago, Tulpule found lots of disused electronics while cleaning drawers. This sparked the beginning of her campaign ‘WeCareDXB’. She said the campaign has collected over 25 tonne of e-waste for recycling in over four years.
“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. However, we were not sure exactly how to go about it. So that made me curious and I decided to do some research into it. Then I chanced upon this campaign,” Tulpule was quoted as saying by the report.
She said many people just dump old devices and appliances in the general waste. This happens as they are not aware of the options for recycling them.
Tulpule raised awareness through social media and word of mouth. ‘WeCareDXB’ has enlisted volunteers — students, professionals, the general public – to collect the items for recycling e-waste.
Tulpule then got in touch with Dubai-based ‘EnviroServe’, an electronics recycler and processor, to hand over the collected items.
In December last, she held her latest collection round, rallying friends and the wider community to drop off over 2,000 broken laptops, tabs, mobile phones, printers, keyboards and other items. Over 60 students from 15 schools had signed up for the 10-day campaign.