Pilot-edition of the Recycle Me. Give me a new life. project showed that there is consumer interest in the proper disposal of PET packaging in five BiH cities. The result of the implementation of the project in partnership with Mercator is 108,225 bottles collected in the period from June 3 to July 29, 2023, in six selected Mercator hypermarkets, where plastic waste packaging was collected every Saturday.
"We are happy because of the excellent result and consumer interest in the campaign. We are convinced that, together with our partner Mercator, we have opened an important phase in creating new habits for the proper disposal of packaging waste. At the same time, we worked on educating citizens about the importance of waste recycling for the preservation of resources and the environment. Coca-Cola's focus, as a socially responsible company, on sustainability, partnerships and innovations in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in general, especially in the field of responsible disposal of packaging waste, continuously achieves results", emphasized Bruno Jelić, Director of the Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Department at Coca-Cola HBC Adria.
The pilot project was implemented at two locations in Sarajevo - Mercator Ložionička and Mercator Dobrinja, and in the facilities Mercator Mostar, Mercator Tuzla, Mercator Borik in Banja Luka and Mercator Brčko. For each plastic bottle, regardless of the size, the bringers received an additional 5 Pika points on their card, the equivalent value of which is 0.10 BAM. Collected Pika points can be used by bearers during their first purchase from August 15, 2023, in accordance with the rules of the Pika card program.
"I want to especially thank Coca-Cola HBC B-H because it implemented the project of recycling plastic packaging waste with the company Mercator, and the second, even bigger thank you goes to our customers who recognized the importance of this initiative, supported it, and thanks to whose involvement significant amounts of PET packaging waste were collected. I would like to point out that our estimates and expectations were exceeded, which shows that the awareness of an increasing number of our fellow citizens about the importance of preserving the environment in which we live is gradually awakening. Mercator is determined to act in the direction of initiating and providing support for environmental protection projects, and I believe that in the future, even more intensively, we will continue to work in this field with Coca-Cola," said Haris Arnautović, head of Mercator's Marketing Department.
Activities within Coca-Cola's Recycle Me. Give me a new life. initiative are part of the global World without waste program and one of Coca-Cola's projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which actively works on finding and applying solutions related to challenges related to packaging. Friends of the pilot project were the companies Ekopak and Euro Beta, which ensured proper management of the collected packaging waste.
