THIS YEAR'S EDITION OF THE COCA-COLA PROJECT FROM SOURCE  TO THE SEA BEGAN WITH THE PACKAGING WASTE CLEANING ACTION IN SARAJEVO

This year's edition of Coca-Cola's socially responsible ecological project From source  to the sea began with the action of cleaning the park near the National Museum, through Vilsonovo, Grbavica and towards Velešići. Five clean-up actions, planned in 2022, at different locations in the country aim to encourage and promote education and strengthening of citizens' awareness of the importance of responsible disposal of packaging waste.

Last year, more than 500 volunteers took part in actions held in seven cities and municipalities where they collected more than five tons of packaging waste. 15 organizations and institutions, as well as numerous media, joined the project in order to influence awareness of the importance of proper and responsible waste disposal and care for the environment.

About 200 volunteers took part in the first clean-up operation on the site of the Municipality of Novo Sarajevo, and they collected hundreds of kilograms of waste - plastic packaging, paper, cans, glass and mixed waste.

"The municipality of Novo Sarajevo, as a socially responsible local community, is certainly here to support this and similar actions and to join another very important and socially responsible company, Coca-Cola, in its campaign of proper collection and separation of packaging and plastic waste for recycling. We are available now and for future projects. Certainly through the office of the Municipality of Novo Sarajevo and through the actions we undertake ourselves, we act on environmental awareness, environmental protection and decarbonization of our environment", said Dr. Hasan Tanović, Mayor of the Municipality of Novo Sarajevo.

Raising awareness of the importance of responsible waste management and separate collection of packaging waste, encouraging actions to clean up water and land surfaces, and generally preserving the environment, are the foundations of the From source  to the sea project.

"I want to thank all the participants and partners of the campaign. Last year, we launched the project From source  to the sea in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in order to deal with the challenges related to packaging waste in the environment through concrete activities. Although packaging is an indispensable part of our everyday life, it certainly should not be found in nature, especially not near the waters, which are the exceptional wealth of Bosnia and Herzegovina. I am convinced that, through these five actions, we will achieve a good result that will encourage all of us to dispose of packaging waste more responsibly," said the director of communications, public relations and sustainable operations of Coca-Cola Adria, Vinko Kovačić.

Coca-Cola in Bosnia and Herzegovina organizes actions in partnership with Konzum in BiH, and in cooperation with UG "Ruke" which is the carrier of the activities of the global initiative Let’s do it in BiH, local non-governmental organizations active in the field of environmental protection and volunteers who participated in the action . The project is supported by institutions responsible for these issues, as well as by local communities.

"It is a special honor for us that this year, together with the Coca-Cola company, which is our long-term business partner, we are making a significant contribution to the preservation of our environment through cleaning actions, which we consider an important initiative in terms of raising environmental awareness, especially among the younger generations, and at the same time we believe that this initiative will be the initiator of a series of positive changes at the local level. Large companies like Coca-Cola and Konzum through the sustainable business segment have clearly set goals in terms of reducing the impact on the environment, and we will continue to act in this direction through joint projects and I am sure that together we will make visible changes," said Haris Arnautović, marketing manager of the company Konzum BiH.

Other packaging and other waste collection actions within the From source  to the sea project in 2022 will be organized in Banja Luka (June 16), Mostar (June 21), Zenica (June 24) and in Sarajevo on June 29, on Igman. Coca-Cola in Bosnia and Herzegovina provided instructions and equipment necessary for waste collection, and actions in local communities are coordinated by non-governmental organizations gathered around the same mission - a world without waste.

The project is also supported by the Environmental Protection Fund of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Agency for the Water Area of the Adriatic Sea, PI Vode Srpske, the Municipality of Novo Sarajevo, the City of Sarajevo, and the companies Ekopak and Euro Beta, which will take care of the removal collected waste.

From source  to the sea is part of the long-term comprehensive plan World without waste by which Coca-Cola has committed, among other things, to collect and recycle the same amount of bottles and cans as it puts on the market by 2030, and that the share of recycled materials in primary packaging must be at least 50 percent. By 2025, all primary packaging will be fully recyclable. Over the past 10 years, Coca-Cola has reduced the weight of the plastic bottles it produces in its plant by a total of 7%. An innovation in the production facility is a new type of plastic cap which, based on a 26% lighter weight, will contribute to reducing the use of plastic by almost 50 tons in 2022.