New Delhi: A fused bulb, tube light that ceases to come on or a battery that is dead for good, all these have a common end destination – the dustbin. No matter how harmful the consequences of land and water pollution, these items with high toxic content, get mixed up with the rest of the garbage and end up in the dump yards or the landfills. Experts day, a broken bulb or tube light can poison 50 litres of water. In order to change this grim reality, Daily Dump, a Bengaluru-based organisation has taken a small step. They have come out with a series of children’s books named Ooze with an aim to teach them how to dispose of these basic household items properly. Apart from books, the organisation also has a range of products designed to ensure that families collect their e-waste in a proper manner to avoid these getting mixed up with other dry waste.
Speaking to NDTV about the initiative Poonam Bir Kasturi, founder of Daily Dump said,
Nobody knows how to handle these items of daily utility properly, as a result, most of the times it gets mixed with our other waste. The other issue is that in India, though there are rules and regulations to dispose off e-waste, the system to follow the rules has not been set properly. To tackle this very problem, Daily Dump thought of communicating with the audience that has the highest potential of bringing about a change in the country — our children and that’s when we thought of bringing out books that will teach the children how to manage e-waste properly.
As of now, two sets of books have been launched and they are available online for purchase at a cost of Rs 200.
Through these books, children can learn about not just the hazards of batteries, but more importantly, how one can collect their e-waste in an effective manner. There are also various activities inside the book to make learning fun and effective, adds Poonam.
The books also educate the children on how e-waste should be kept separate from other waste items and encourage them to look out for recycling facilities or collection centres for dropping off e-waste.
Apart from the booklet, the organisation has series of colourful products that are also available on Daily Dump’s official website. These items are there to make waste segregation a fun process for children so that they can look forward to it.
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We have a ‘Care Box’ to store out-of-service bulbs and a ‘Tubicle’ for tube lights, and an ‘Ooze stopper’ for storing used batteries. All these products come with a small story-cum-activity book for children, so they can further explore the world of e-waste in an effective and colourful way, says Poonam.
That’s ‘Ooze stopper’ for storing used batteries
This is ‘Tubicle’ for storing old tube lights
Through this simple initiative, the main idea is to encourage more and more people to adopt e-waste management at home and inculcate the habit of safely stocking and disposing of used bulbs, tube lights or batteries collectively, instead of throwing them away in a dustbin.
