Coca-Cola Jamaica officially launched its World Without Waste global campaign in Jamaica at The University of the West Indies’ (UWI) Mona Campus in Kingston recently, with the aim to collect and recycle the equivalent of every bottle or can the company sells by 2030. The campaign includes engaging students at UWI to compete to win $1 million in cash.

According to Brand Manager Amoye Phillpotts-Brown this initiative is significant to the company and the environment.

“Food and beverage packaging are an important part of our modern lives, yet the world has a major packaging problem. Like many companies that make products we all love, our packaging has contributed to this global challenge,” Phillpotts-Brown was quoted in a press release.

“We recognise that driving the importance of recycling through this initiative will definitely help to lessen the burden on the environment. [Coca-Cola] considers young people to be the agents of change – and we are providing exciting cash prizes for your efforts,” she continued.

According to her, participants must create a national campaign on the World Without Waste initiative focusing on recycling and waste management, which should include communication material and a jingle to sensitise and get Jamaicans excited about recycling.

This will be presented to a panel of judges which will include representatives from Wisynco, the UWI Guild and Recycling Partners of Jamaica Limited (RPJL).

Coca-Cola will then award the winning team in the proposal aspect of the competition with $500,000.

At the launch event, UWI halls of residence submitted their first instalment of bottles for the UWI bottle drive.

“Some halls have already made significant submissions of bottles, which tells me that we should meet the 200,000 bottle target set for UWI by mid-November. The student body, including all hall residents, totals around 20,000. If each student recycles one bottle per day for the period, in excess of over one million bottles can be collected,” Phillpotts-Brown declared.

The first leg of the World Without Waste engagement at the UWI will continue until the end of November. Each week, the bottles collected by each hall will be weighed for collection by RPJL.

At the end of the period, the halls with the top three heaviest collections of bottles will receive cash prices of $250,000, $150,000 and $100,000, respectively.

Coca-Cola is distributed by Wisynco Group Limited, which has lent the operations of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm, Wisynco Eco (Eco), to assist with the recycling aspect of the local campaign.

“Recycling is something that is promoted by all Wisynco brands, and so ‘Eco’ is lending its mechanisms and leveraging its relationships with local recycling stakeholders to assist Coca-Cola with this very worthwhile campaign. Our board of directors and the entire Wisynco family are enthusiastic about the goal of the campaign, as it ties in well with our goal to positively influence the recycling habits of consumers and heighten public awareness around the implications of ignoring environmental issues,” environment communication officer at Wisynco Eco, Shelly-Ann Dunkley stated.

Ultimately, Coca-Cola’s objective is to help people understand what, how, and where to recycle, and to reduce carbon emissions, create less waste, and use fewer resources overall.