In an endeavour to address the e-waste crisis in the country, International Finance Corporation (a member of the World Bank Group) and Karo Sambhav, a tech-enabled Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO) launched a consumer awareness campaign titled ‘E-waste Hum Le Jayenge’. The campaign will educate consumers of electronic and electrical devices about the right practice of disposing their e-waste as well as inform them about the environmental and health hazards of irresponsible e-waste recycling.
The campaign will be promoted through digital, social media and radio platforms to create wide scale awareness around responsible and effective e-waste management across the country. The campaign will engage with individual consumers, bulk consumers (universities, corporates, etc.) and policy makers so that all stakeholders in the ecosystem can collectively address the e-waste crisis. The campaign will be initially promoted in Delhi, Chandigarh, Bengaluru and Chennai and will be adapted in four languages (Hindi, English, Kannada and Tamil) during the outreach.
Sharing his views on the critical need of addressing India’s e-waste crisis, Pranshu Singhal, Founder, Karo Sambhav, said,” Discussions on e-waste management have largely been confined to experts and industry stakeholders and it is yet to become a mainstream topic. We need to engage creatively with people and drive long-term behavioural shifts. This campaign aims to build an e-waste movement in India.”
The campaign has been designed by J Walter Thompson and aims to create top-of-the-mind recall by building relevance for the Indian consumers, while providing a clear call-to-action to dispose e-waste responsibly through e-waste collection channels set up by Karo Sambhav.
Speaking about the campaign, Joy Chauhan, Managing Partner, J. Walter Thompson, Delhi, said, “E-waste management is a complex ecosystem with multiple stakeholders, involved in generation of e-waste and its unsafe disposal. Our campaign’s objective was to cut through all segments in a way that is simple to understand and easy to follow. To resonate with all the different stakeholders and public at large, and to reframe the technology / environment conversation in order to make it more exciting, more relevant and more engaging – we took to pervasive cinema culture of India. We believe it would help create a positive dialogue for the program and bring the issue to fore.”
Speaking about the need of collective efforts from all stakeholders in the ecosystem, Sarina Bolla, Program Manager for IFC’s India E-waste Program, said “E-waste is the fastest growing waste stream globally; building awareness about proper management of e-waste is essential to meeting our goal of building a sustainable long term solution for India. The campaign will engage with multiple stakeholders to change how we address the current challenges in this sector”
