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.
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.
We at JAAGRUTI Waste Paper Recycling Services were interviewed by EUmIND Go Green Ecological Companies group from Bal Bharati Public School, GRH Marg. The link to the interview can be accessed on http://eumindgogreen15.weebly.com/bal-bharati-public-school-grh-ecological-companies.html. Screenshots of the interview on their Project website are shared below and the Video Interview with Vasudha Mehta, the Co-founder of JAAGRUTI Waste Paper Recycling Services, that the Team has uploaded on YouTube can be viewed as well.
Our Co-founder, Vasudha Mehta conducted an Awareness Session scheduled at Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College, University of Delhi. This talk was organised by the NSS (National Service Scheme) chapter of the College as part of its ‘Swachtta Pakhwara‘ week. The event was also graced by the pro-active presence of the College Principal, Dr. Jha.
Flex banner at the Event
Dr. Jha, Principal of ARSD College
The audience at the awareness session
Vasudha Mehta, Co-founder of JAAGRUTI holding the awareness session
Vasudha Mehta, Co-founder of JAAGRUTI holding the awareness session
The audience at the awareness session
Vasudha Mehta, Co-founder of JAAGRUTI holding the awareness session
Vasudha and Vivek Mehta of JAAGRUTI Waste Paper Recycling Services (on the left-centre of the photograph) hand over the Certificate of Recycling to the CEO of BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL) in presence of the team at BRPL that helped roll the Paper Recycling Initiative across all offices of theirs in Delhi. The news was circulated in the in-house/internal magazine publication of BRPL named ‘Connexion’ as well.
Our Co-founder, Vasudha Mehta was one of the Speakers at “A Conference on HCD – Human Centered Design Thinking in Practice:Case Studies in Urban Waste Management” — which was held at the Uchicago Delhi Center and in line with the theme given to us, we shared with the audience, our story of setting up and scaling up JAAGRUTI Waste Paper Recycling Services across the three phases of adopting a Human Centered Design based approach – from INSPIRATION to IDEATION to IMPLEMENTATION.
As per IDEO.org:
Human-centered design is a creative approach to problem solving . It’s a process that starts with the people you’re designing for and ends with new solutions that are tailor-made to suit their needs. Human centered design is all about building a deep empathy with the people you’re designing for; generating tons of ideas; building a bunch of prototypes; sharing what you’ve made with the people you’re designing for; and eventually putting your innovative new solution out in the world. Human-centered design is a process that can be used across industries and sectors to approach any number of challenges—from product and service design to space or systems design, to name just a few
JAAGRUTI - Waste Paper Recycling Services in Delhi NCR 