Month: October 2018

In light of the global crisis of waste management, The Coca-Cola Company has launched its new product packaging policy; ‘World Without Waste’ on January 19, 2018, under which the Company will lead the industry in a bold, ambitious goal: to help bring back a bottle or can for every one that it sells by year 2030. The goal is to make recycling more accessible to achieve 100% collection and recycling by 2030, creating public awareness about what, how, and where to recycle, with continued focus on making company’s packaging 100% recyclable.

In line with the global strategy, The Coca-Cola Export Corporation, Pakistan Branch, launched a Coastal Cleanup activity entitled Beaches Without Waste at Seaview Beach, Karachi, observing the International Coastal Cleanup Day celebrated globally on September 15 each year.

The Coastal Cleanup activity on September 15, 2018 was held from 9.00 AM to 2.00 PM. The activity aimed at drawing public attention to the urgent need for proper waste disposal and inculcate a practice of maintaining trash free beaches. The activity was carried out in association with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) – Pakistan.

For successful execution of event, the National Volunteer Programme was also taken on board to facilitate with 100 volunteers to carry out activity. It was a big challenge for the NVP team, which came up to the task fully and got registered more than one hundred volunteers from its volunteer pool.

We circulated an enrolment form and within just a couple of hours we already had an overwhelming response of 100+ entries. The group of volunteers was a blend of students, corporate executives and social entrepreneurs. We had effectively accomplished a proportion of 60:40 for male and female individually. Around 350 enlistments were recorded, from which we sifted down to 135 volunteers in light of their keen interest in the cause and earlier relevant experience. Priority was given to those who had attended NVP orientation at least once.

At the event, a few teachers and even a doctor from Karachi Vocational Training Centre (KVTC) also joined our team to strengthen our effort. At the end of the activity, over 535 kgs of litter was collected, in separate colour-coded bags for paper, plastic and miscellaneous waste, over a vast beach area of 300,000 square meters. The collected litter was then handed over to Waste Busters, a waste recycling and disposal company, for further processing. At the event’s conclusion, all volunteers were thanked for their dedicated efforts and certificates of participation were distributed.

Pursuing the primary objective of creating widespread awareness for a world without waste, the activity was shared with the society at large through coverage in newspapers, television and social media. Articles and photographs were also shared on social media pages of Coke and NVP team, the same day with hashtags #BeachesWithoutWaste #CokeCoastalCleanup & #CoastalCleanup2018

NVP is grateful to all our volunteers who took out time and demonstrated their commitment towards cleaning up the environment. We are not intending to put a full stop right here; instead we look forward to organizing similar campaigns in the future also.