This Photograph (*Image credit: Entrepreneur India) features, amongst others, the Co-founders of JAAGRUTI Waste Paper Recycling Services: Vasudha Mehta (Seated in the Center) and Vivek Mehta (with the stack of newspapers loaded over his arm). It was published in the August 2017 Issue of Entrepreneur India magazine in an article titled, “These Business Enthusiasts are Cash-in On the Trash“. The link to the complete article can be read by clicking here.
Excerpts from the article quoting Vivek Mehta, Co-founder of JAAGRUTI Waste Paper Recycling Services are shared below:
Very few companies in India give you end-to-end waste management solution by collecting your waste, recycling it and give you finished goods. Similar business model is followed by Jaagruti, a company that solely deals in paper recycling and management. Vivek Mehta, Co-founder of Jaagruti, says, “As an environment conscious individual, I hated paper wastage that happened rampantly at the office where I was working previously. So I thought why don’t I recycle paper and manufacture finished stationary to sell.” For Mehta, the idea was always to re-use, if that’s a possibility. “We took the waste paper to a mill where it would be recycled and then we again give it back to our client as a finished fresh paper product. That is how the loop closes,” said Vivek Mehta, Co-founder of Jaagruti.
Both our works were featured on the popular positive news-portal named ‘The Better India‘ in a story titled, “A Family’s Commitment Has Helped Give Onsite Treatment to Over 2,000 Street Dogs in Delhi“.
Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step of your life.
Vasudha Mehta, an animal rights crusader, would definitely vouch for it.
The Delhi resident, along with her brother Vivek and mother Neeru, started the Jaagruti Trust in 2009 with a vision to “inform, inspire and share” just as the name ‘Jaagruti’ implies.
Together, they embarked upon a journey for the next eight years that would end up saving the lives of more than 2,000 street animals.
*Above photograph features Vasudha Mehta. Photo Courtesy: Kavita C Dixit/Book titled ‘Women of Wonder’, published by Vodafone Foundation and Roli Books.
With a team of para-veterinary consultants and trained veterinary pharmacists, the home-run trust provides onsite first-aid treatment for stray dogs with wounds from injuries or maggot infections.
“The reason for starting the trust goes a long way back. Back when we were young there used to be a lot of stray dogs in our locality that we looked out for. But there was one little boy whom we named Bhooru, who gave us seven wonderful years full of love and memories. I guess it all started there; right from the conscious feeling about the state of street animals,” Vasudha says.
Rewind back to 2002 when Bhooru was a part of the family, the brother-sister duo would often find many other strays just vanishing from their streets. Despite having inquired with municipal authorities they found no answers.
“It was disheartening. We knew that these dogs would often get picked up for sterilisation but then what happened to them? The thought continued to persist and it gave us no respite to be that clueless,” she adds.
In the meantime, the siblings took some of the dogs from their locality in their own car for sterilisation and made it a point of getting them back to the same place.
A dog being treated. Courtesy: Jaagruti.
After a while, they figured that the animals that were picked up for neutering were being dropped off at random locations after the deed, resulting in further deaths. “This would only agitate an animal after having been left at a hostile, unknown environment,” she says.
To understand how things worked, Vasudha, who had completed her masters, decided to work with animal welfare organisations in 2004. She learnt a lot about the plight of the animals, having seen both good and bad.
“My mother often told us that if you want to change something, you need to do it yourself, without having the need to depend on anyone else,” she says.
She recalls a time when she was unsure of her intentions to set up a trust or an organisation but discrepancies in the system and an overpowering concern did eventually pave the family’s destiny.
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JAAGRUTI was also mentioned on the story on the below news-links:
“Finally in 2009, my brother and I began with a blog that published articles raising concerns of municipality driven sterilisation drives and offering basic DIY first-aid measures for stray animals and some of our rescue exploits,” Vasudha adds.
One thing lead to another and soon Jaagruti was running with a helpline where people in Delhi and the NCR zone could reach out and report cases.
“Initially, it was just the both of us in our car who took the dogs to the hospitals. Upon realising that this was not doing much good to them after being petrified in a surgical environment, we finalised on giving them first-aid treatment,” she says.
Apart from doing so much for their furry street friends, Vasudha and Vivek also started a venture in 2011 involving waste paper recycling services and have partnered with more than 300 corporate and government organisations.
“We work on a barter system model that involves buying the waste paper from huge establishments and paying them back with recycled and customised company specific notepads. We act as the link between these organisations and the paper mills,” Vasudha explains.
Vasudha attributes their success to her mother Neeru for her unbreakable support in the journey and her brother for being her partner in every good deed.
*Above photograph features Vivek Mehta
Vasudha and her family dedicate themselves to the well-being of voiceless beings, making the world a safer place for them.
To take advice on how to administer first aid and vaccinations for street dogs/street animals, anywhere across the Country, you can mail them at firstaid@jaagruti.org.
We were featured on the popular news-portal ‘YourStory.com’ in a story titled, “This family’s resolution has helped over 2,000 stray animals and recycled tonnes of waste paper“.
Vasudha, Vivek, and their mother Neeru Mehta been ‘awakening’ a sense of responsibility in people through their organisation Jaagruti.
Credit : Kavita C Dixit
Having spent her teen years hooked onto shows like ‘Living on the Edge,’ a ‘90’s TV show made by the Alva Brothers that highlighted environmental concerns of the country, Vasudha Mehta knew that she didn’t want to follow conventional professions of being a doctor or an engineer, and instead wanted to make her career in the field of environment conservation and animal welfare.
Vasudha was inspired by TV channels National Geographic, Discovery and Animal Planet and often dreamt of being part of TV crews and observing nature and its beings from up close and documenting their stories.
This dictated the course that she would later take in her life in terms of her career, her passion, and how she started Jaagruti Trust, along with her mother (Neeru Mehta) and brother (Vivek Mehta), in 2009.
For the love of animals
After finishing her studies in 2006, Vasudha worked at People for Animals with Mrs. Maneka Gandhi and Wildlife SOS at their Agra Bear Rescue Facility for about 2.5 years, where she learnt her own lessons of ‘love and loss’ the hard way.
Ever since, Vasudha has been trying to ‘inform and inspire’ street animal caretakers across the country in learning and using laws and information to safeguard animal rights and learn street animal first aid to help heal the animals.
“This is all being done through the work that we do under Jaagruti 2009.
My mother has raised us both as a single parent and it’s in stray dogs that we found our best friends and Jaagruti is the and will always remain a tribute to the first stray dog we befriended and named Bhooru who passed away in 2007, after giving us seven wonderful years of companionship,” says Vasudha.
Jaagruti engages local caretakers in the process of treating the animals, a major percentage of which are those that are looked after by lower income group roadside dwellers or people living in slums. Local caretakers are often people who reach out to Jaagruti seeking for help. By including them, Jaagruti ensures that “people locally start getting more informed on first aid treatments and start taking responsibility for ensuring the well-being of neighbourhood animals,” as Vasudha says.
“Jaagruti believes in educating and empowering the caretaker to learn and serve other street animals in need independently through the knowledge they have acquired by observing us at work and participating in restraining the animal in need during treatment till the animal has recuperated,” says Vasudha.
For the love of nature
In May 2012, Vasudha left her job and started dedicating her time to Jaagruti Waste Paper Recycling Services.
Vasudha and Vivek, who jointly run the social enterprise, say that with the bulk of municipal waste management budget being allocated to transportation and collection, there is no money left to grade waste in different categories and reprocess/recycle it efficiently.
According to Indian Agro and Recycled Paper Mills Association (IARPMA), the country uses around 11.5–12.5 million tonnes of paper every year. Statistics convey that of the paper we consume as a nation, only about 20–30 percent get recovered and reach a recycling mill, thus leaving the rest to rot at a landfill site and adding to our greenhouse gas emissions.
Jaagruti Waste Paper Recycling Services started its operations in December 2011 and today extends its services to over 250 institutions across various platforms in the Delhi NCR region, some of which include diplomatic establishments like embassies of Greece, Italy, Belgium, and Sweden, central government institutions like Central Bureau of Investigation, Medical Council of India, National Informatics Centre, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, and BSF’s Medical Directorate to name a few.
The waste paper collected from various institutions is systematically graded at the unit before it is transported to a recycling mill where it is processed to make different qualities of recycled paper and board, by using Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) bleaching technology.
As per standard industry parameters made available on the USEPA Website, one tonne of recycled paper saves 17 trees, 26,281 litres of water, 264 kg of air pollution, 1,752 litres of oil, 4077 KW hours of energy, and 82.62 cubic feet of landfill space.
“We have helped recycle close to 17,00,000 kg/1,700 tonne of waste paper so far. Before discarding waste paper in a general dustbin, you may do well to remember that paper doesn’t grow on trees, but rather about 17–22 full grown trees are cut to make one tonne of paper” says Vasudha.
Vasudha Mehta, Co-founder of JAAGRUTI Waste Paper Recycling Services was featured as an Expert on a Panel Discussion on “Waste Management woes plaguing all Indian Metros” on NewsX Channel.
She spoke on where exactly the Waste Management budget allotted to the Municipalities gets spent on, “its majorly spent on paying salaries to street sweepers, door to door garbage collection and hiring dumper trucks to dump the collected waste to landfill sites. There is no budget allocation on ‘Processing and Recycling of Waste’ at the Municipality or Government level”.
From banning plastic bottles on campus, to recycling waste, installing solar heaters and promoting use of bicycles, Delhi University colleges are taking a number of eco-friendly initiatives to protect the environment.
Ramjas College has introduced a green cycle project to promote the use of bicycles within the campus and nearby areas.
“We have tied up with Delhi Cycles Private Limited (GreenRide Public Bicycle Sharing Service). We are the first college in Delhi University to do something like this. As a part of the project, Delhi Cycles will be providing cycles to us, free of cost. Two stands – On our campus and at the Metro – will be built. Students can swipe a smart card to access and drop off the cycles. Services will be available from 8 am to 8 pm, says Nalini Nigam, associate professor, department of botany in Ramjas.
From the past three years, the college has also been sending all its waste paper to Jaagruti waste paper recycling services. This year, waste paper sent totalled 2,230 kg, Nigam says.
Delhi International Airport Limited’s Paper Recycling Initiative with ‘Jaagruti’ gets featured in the National Press on 2nd April, 2012
To read the Online version of this news story, please click here
Excerpt from this story is quoted below:
The Indira Gandhi International Airport here has initiated measures like using recycled papers at its premises in a bid to become a ‘green airport’. After putting in place some of the green initiatives like rainwater, use of natural lights and efforts to reduce emissions, the airport operator, Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), has now decided to use recycled papers in its offices. For this, DIAL has entered into an agreement with an NGO ‘Jaagruti’, which will recycle the waste paper generated in its offices and get the notepads or A4 sheet made from the recycled paper.
“The collected waste paper would be systematically graded and transported to the recycling mill. There it would be processed to make different quality of recycled paper by using Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) bleaching technology,” a DIAL spokesperson said.
This would save 17 trees, 26,281 litres of water, 264 kg of air pollution, 1,752 litres of oil, 4077 KW hours of energy, 82.62 cubic feet of landfill space, he claimed. As a part of the initiative, DIAL shared one tonne of paper waste for recycling to Jaagruti. “DIAL is committed to conducting its business in an environment-friendly and sustainable manner at IGI airport by minimising the impact of our activities on the environment and community. Environment Management is an integral part of our business strategy towards achieving credibility and business sustainability,” DIAL CEO I Prabhakar Rao said.
If you or the organisation you work with want to associate with ‘Jaagruti Waste Paper Recycling Services’ to recycle your waste paper, please contactus by calling us on +91-98101 91625 or writing to us on paper@we-recycle.org with a cc to contact@jaagruti.org
Next time you waste paper, you may do well to remember that paper doesn’t grow on trees!
But, about 17-22 full grown trees are cut to make 1 tonne of paper.
Paper usage is inevitable, we understand that because we also use paper, BUT you can help the environment by reusing paper. Reuse minimizes the amount of trash you produce and conserves precious natural resources.
Many everyday paper items can be reused and kept out of landfills:
Replace using tissue papers with handkerchiefs, why waste paper made out of trees, when you can use a piece of cloth that can be washed over and over again and reused..Think?
Save paper that has print on only one side. This paper can be reused in a variety of ways: for writing lists or notes, as drawing or coloring paper for children, for home printing that doesn’t need to be professional.
Save toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls. These can be used for school or home art projects. They can also be used for starting seeds.
Save tissue wrapping paper. It can be reused for wrapping another gift, as packing material, or for protecting Christmas ornaments for storage.
Save junk mail. It can be used to make lists, as scratch paper, for a child’s drawing.
Replace paper bags with cloth bags while you go shopping.
If you have some paper left that hasn’t been reused through some method above or has been used and re-used to the hilt and can’t be used or re-used anymore, don’t throw it away!
In the video below, virgin paper (paper made from wood-pulp) is being compared to recycled paper, in a point-by-point manner thereby showing which one is better for our environment and why so?
After watching this video you would have been able to analyse that recycled paper uses less energy thereby producing less carbon emissions , making it much more environmentally friendly.
So, which one would you chose for your work? Recycled Paper or Virgin Wood-based paper? The choice is now entirely yours!
Contact us at ‘Jaagruti’ if you/your organisation wants to do either of the following:
Recycle your organisation’s waste paper.
Or if you want to replace/supplement your existing paper stationery at work with 100% Recycled White Elemental Chlorine Free Paper stationery products.
Whatever you wish to do, we at ‘Jaagruti’ can help you save both, paper and our planet!
JAAGRUTI - Waste Paper Recycling Services in Delhi NCR 