11-Year Old Works to Save Water and Recycle Batteries

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Pavit Thakkar. Read his story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light. 

Jersey City native Pavit Thakkar loves to play chess and piano, and will enter seventh grade this fall. But Pavit is no ordinary 11-year-old. He works tirelessly to promote battery recycling and responsible water use, donating over hundreds of hours of volunteer time in the past several years for two nonprofits, Recycle My Battery and Save Drop. 

Recycle My Battery provides convenient drop off points for household batteries that would otherwise end up in landfills. Currently, the organization has 865 used battery donation bins all across the United States. With those bins, Recycle My Battery has saved over 500,000 batteries from polluting our soil and waterways. Recycling batteries allows battery manufacturers to reuse the materials. The Recycle My Battery efforts contribute to several U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. These include goals for clean water and sanitation, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, and climate action.  

Save Drop’s mission is to raise awareness of water waste and to promote practical solutions such as household recirculation pumps that eliminate water wasted while waiting for the shower to heat up. Save Drop is working to mandate the use of recirculating pumps and to offer tax credits to households that install them. 

What inspires you to volunteer? 

I was doing research for a school project when I stumbled on the Recycle My Battery website. I read about the dangers that batteries can cause to the environment, so I was inspired to join. Recently I received an invitation from the parents of the Recycle My Battery founder to join Save Drop as a social media ambassador. 

I believe volunteering is important. We need to support our community as it supports us. I volunteer for Recycle My Battery and Save Drop because I am passionate about solving environmental issues. When I learned about environmental causes in my area, I was inspired to join the efforts. 

Tell us about your volunteer role with Recycle My Battery and Save Drop. 

I’ve been working with Recycle My Battery for about a year and a half, and with Save Drop for four months. My role with Recycle My Battery has two streams. One is to place battery collection boxes at schools, community centers, libraries, and United Nations JSPF (Joint Staff Pension Fund) offices, where my parents work. I asked my dad to connect and propose the idea of placing a battery drop-off bin at the UN JSPF offices. Recently, we placed battery collection boxes at the Bayonne Public Library. 

My second role with Recycle My Battery is to conduct presentations and do outreach about battery recycling. I created a short PowerPoint presentation that I use to reference whenever I discuss the initiative with prospective locations. 

We do presentations at schools to educate people about the importance of battery recycling and onboard more kids to help with this initiative. In the past, we used to ship full collection boxes to our partner, Call2Recycle which is the biggest recycling organization in the USA and Canada. However, the cost of shipping has gone up so much so now we take the batteries to Home Depot or Staples and reuse the collection boxes at our collection locations. I collect the donated batteries on a regular basis. Whoever places a battery box at a specific location is responsible for emptying it. I am responsible for about 10 battery boxes. 

I am responsible for the social media outreach for Save Drop. I develop and execute social media marketing campaigns to promote water conservation. Almost all of my work with Save Drop is through social media, but I also ask people to join the campaign and sign petitions.    

 Save Drop’s mission is to reduce water waste and one way we do it is to promote the use of recirculation pumps. When you take a shower, a lot of water goes down the drain before it becomes hot enough to shower in. We have a petition about mandating recirculation pumps that would prevent this water from literally going down the drain. We are also encouraging the government to give tax breaks to homeowners who install these recirculation pumps. I encourage everyone to sign our petition!

What are your long-term goals? 

I’m trying to expand my reach to bigger and larger communities for both organizations, especially Save Drop because it is a new organization. I plan on doing more presentations at schools for Save Drop. My goal for Recycle My Battery is to expand the number of collection boxes and increase community awareness. 

What’s been the most rewarding part of your work? 

Definitely the most rewarding part and one of my favorite memories is the Recycle My Battery Guiness World Record attempt. Along with my team, I set a world record for the longest line of end-to-end batteries in October 2023. We beat the previous record by around 30,000 batteries! 

What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer? 

Even the smallest actions like placing a battery collection box in convenient locations can have a big impact, and small efforts to save water can make a huge difference. I have learned about becoming a leader, reaching out to people and networking. I saw how the power of community makes change. I also learned how teamwork can achieve a huge goal.  

Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about? 

Volunteering helps create a stronger and more connected community. It makes a positive impact on the world and everyone around you. It helps us understand the needs of others and respect the earth. By working together and supporting each other, we can solve problems more effectively and create a better environment for everyone. 

Any advice for people who want to start volunteering? 

I want people to realize that everyone can make a difference. No matter how small, it matters! By getting involved we can collectively work toward a more sustainable and better future. 

What do you want people to learn from your story? 

I hope my story can show that taking initiative and working together can lead to a lot of positive changes. It’s also a lot of fun working with these initiatives. I enjoy it and I hope other people can realize that too! 

Do you want to make a difference in your community like Pavit? Find local volunteer opportunities.