TNT launches drive to collect used greeting cards for re-use by NGOs

Manika Gupta

Ever wondered what to do with your used greeting cards? Re-address these cards to TNT India. Of course, the international express distribution company won’t keep the cards for itself. The cards will be forwarded to select non-governmental organisations who re-use the cards as educational material or recycle them into paper and new cards.

The NGOs that will benefit from this year’s campaign include Ashadeep in Bangalore, a home for education and rehabilitation of street children and ragpickers; Akshayam, a pre-school educational institute for challenged children; Save the Children, an institute for slum and challenged children; Smile, a welfare home catering to women, children and senior citizens; Society for Development Alternatives; Earth, and Vidya Sagar in Chennai.

TNT’s mission statement also provides for contributing something to society. In India, it is the mentally and physically challenged children who will get the maximum attention. “The genesis of this idea came from the Spastics Society,” says Ajay Kaul, director of sales and marketing, TNT. “This year we plan to collect around 1 lakh cards,” he adds. Last year, they collected 55,000 cards.

Corporates like Reliance, United Breweries, Citibank, IIT Kanpur, have been supporting the initiative since it was launched in 1997-1998.
Under the initiative called ‘Reuse and Recycle’, the company has set up collection boxes at several locations in major metros to collect greeting cards from public. The company has tie-ups with various schools and corporates like Foodworld, Dishnet and Shopper’s Stop. The cards are collected by TNT and then passed on to the NGOs, who then either re-use or re-cycle them.