Coca-Cola partners to collect over 4,000 Kgs of PET plastic bottles during the Kataragama Festival

Coca-Cola Beverages Sri Lanka Ltd. joined hands with Eco-Spindles Pvt Ltd and the Kataragama Festival Committee in a PET plastic clean-up and collection drive during the recently concluded Kataragama Festival. During the programme, volunteers from the Soba Mituru Youth Club, Eco-Spindles Pvt Ltd and Coca-Cola’s Matara Area Sales Team and the Public Affairs, Communications and Sustainability Team participated. Pilgrims also joined in to contribute their efforts, witnessing this laudable initiative. For the third year, the annual clean-up and collection drive during the Kataragama Festival has continued to be an integral part of Coca-Cola’s ‘Give Back Life’ commitment - an ambitious goal to help collect and recycle the equivalent of every bottle it sells in Sri Lanka. Through the support of Eco-Spindles all the collected PET plastic packaging is converted  into new products such as brooms, brushes, clothing and shoes

Expressing his views on the initiative, Mayank Arora - Managing Director of Coca-Cola Beverages Sri Lanka Ltd. said, “It is a matter of pride for us to be engaged for the third consecutive year with the sacred Kataragama Festival to conduct this programme towards PET plastic collection and recycling.. Our ‘Give Back Life’ program during the Kataragama festival has become a critical service to all pilgrims and the public. The enthusiasm and engagement of the volunteer teams across the partner groups has continued to motivate pilgrims and visitors to be more conscious to protect the environment towards a better society for all. We are grateful to all who joined hands with us to recover 4,227 kilograms of PET bottles.”

Adding further, Dr. Anush Amarasinghe - BPPL Holdings Managing Director said, “Eco-Spindles is not able to recycle without the support of our partners for collecting the much needed and valuable raw material of PET plastic waste. We do not see PET plastic as waste but a valuable commodity which can be recycled and converted into new products, thereby generating new livelihoods in Sri Lanka. Thanks to Coca-Cola’s efforts as a responsible producer and through the support of the Festival Committee of the Katharagama festival, our efforts to collect PET plastic from such milestone events has become a reality. Without critical partners such as these, we would not be able to drive recovery and recycling and prevent waste ending up in landfills and in our surrounding environments. This move to recycle plastics to generate livelihoods is a much-needed initiative and we hope more and more people will contribute by supplying plastic waste from their own homes, workplaces and communities.”

‘Give Back Life’ continues to drive locally The Coca-Cola Company’s global “World Without Waste” goal to help collect and recycle the equivalent of 100% of its packaging by 2030. This goal is the centerpiece of the Company’s new packaging vision in Sri Lanka.