Waste can become raw material once again, but it requires conscious waste recovery efforts to ensure that items scrapped or thrown away get to the appropriate place and are recycled. Loacker Hulladékhasznosító Kft. is pursuing its activities with the aim of creating raw materials for the future: recycling makes it possible to generate raw materials with significant energy efficiency, at the same time also reducing environmental burden.

Waste recovery has a significant impact on the economy. To illustrate it with a practical example: if you put an empty beer can into the appropriate (yellow) collection bin, after going through a multi-step waste management process it will eventually end up in an aluminium smelter, where it will be turned into raw material once again. This process of aluminium production uses 95% less energy than the making of aluminium from bauxite, meaning that while the end product is of identical quality, the production process is much more economical. On the other hand, if you throw an aluminium can into the communal (black) waste bin, it will be taken to the landfill, contributing to an increase in environmental burden.

Loacker Hulladékhasznosító Kft. works together with its industrial and public service provider partners with the aim of jointly developing more efficient systems and achieving, as a common goal, an improvement in waste recollection rates. However, liaising with the general public and participating in targeted awareness-raising efforts are equally important, as consumption and buying habits are closely interrelated with the quantity of waste produced, and also its management.

As a part of its CSR activities Loacker organizes various programs, among others in collaboration with various civil society organizations, and frequently hosts field trips where school groups can get acquainted with all waste processing operations. In addition, the Company’s staff and consultants regularly participate in the “Earth Day” event organized every year by the 9th district municipality, where – through a series of playful activities – they promote waste recycling and stress its role in creating value in an environmentally friendly manner. In addition to theoretical awareness-raising activities, the Company has launched several practical initiatives in support of appropriate waste management. Sorting and handling waste at recreational events often poses a challenge, this is why Loacker provided several selective waste storage bins to help keep Hídépítő Street – this year’s World Urban Games venue – clean, at the same time guaranteeing the recovery of all waste generated.

“Value can only be created from waste by recovery. But in order to be able to produce raw materials for the future, we must consciously create a cycle of planning, production and recovery” – said János Dévényi, managing director of Loacker Hulladékhasznosító Kft.

The Loacker Group – a 100% subsidiary of the Austrian Loacker Recycling GmbH. – has been active in Hungary since 1993. The group currently operates three yards in Hungary (2 in Budapest and 1 in Kiskorpád). With a history of over 140 years, the parent company and also the sister companies are committed to a sustainable future and the use of environmentally conscious recovery technologies in everyday practice.

To be part of the solution in creating a circular plastics economy, one where plastics are reused and recycled, Dove is accelerating and expanding its actions with renewed force, Dove is making some significant changes to packaging and products. Here’s how.

No plastic: According to the plan single packs of Dove’s iconic beauty bar will be plastic-free globally. Development is also underway to replace the plastic outer-wrap of multipacks with a zero-plastic material.

Better plastic: In line with Unilever’s global commitment to halve its use of virgin plastic by 2025, Dove will switch to new 100% recycled plastic bottles, where technically feasible, in North America and Europe by the end of 2019.

Less plastic: Dove will leverage the technology behind its new reusable, refillable, stainless steel format deodorant sticks: minim™. It will be trialed as part of the LOOP™ platform initiative: a first-of-its-kind, minimal waste, direct-to-consumer shopping system.

The 2019 Dow Jones Sustainability Index – a leading global benchmark for sustainability in business – has rated Coca‑Cola HBC Europe’s most sustainable beverage company. This is the 6th time in 7 years that the company has been ranked number 1 in the index and the 9th year in a row that it has been ranked in the top three Global and European beverage companies.

Maximum scores in 11 categories and positive improvements in 9 others contributed to an overall score of 90, which ranked the company second in the global ranking.

Commenting on the achievement, CEO Zoran Bogdanovic said: “We are honoured and proud that the commitment of our employees and partners to sustainable practices has again resulted in this recognition. We are well aware though that this is just a snapshot. In reality, the work never stops and there is always more to be done. That’s why we put so much focus on the consistent, long-term delivery of our sustainability goals.”

2018 sustainability highlights that contributed to our score

• We achieved our science-based commitment to reduce carbon emissions in our value chain by 25% (compared with 2010), two years ahead of the 2020 target date. In other words, we have saved 1.27 million tonnes of carbon emissions;
• We achieved an employee engagement score of 88%, above the average of FTSE 100 companies
• 37% of management roles are now held by women, our target is 50% by 2025;
• 98% of our €3.237m supplier spend was local, supporting employment and businesses in the countries in which we operate, while we contributed €328m in taxes to local economies.
• We invested €7.9m in community projects, of which more than one third in our flagship Youth Empowered programme to help young people develop business acumen and personal life skills;
• We reduced the amount of water used in production by 22% in our manufacturing plants (compared to 2010);
• We successfully recovered the equivalent of 45% of the total primary packaging we placed in the market for recycling.

Mission Sustainability

We launched our 2025 sustainability commitments in September 2018 to address six key areas: reducing emissions; water use and stewardship; World Without Waste; ingredients sourcing; nutrition; and our people and communities. The full commitments can be viewed here. We have already made good progress and are on track to meet these.

Coca‑Cola HBC’s sustainability performance is also recognised by other respected industry rankings, such as the CDP Climate Disclosure, the MSCI ESG Rating and the FTSE4Good Index.

What can we do to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of commuting to the airport? What are the alternative, sustainable ways of doing that? How can the ecological footprint of a passenger or airport staff member be reduced? These were among the questions requiring complex solutions that Budapest Airport sought to answer, with the help of transport development experts, as part of an EU project called LAirA, the international closing conference of which was held on 5 December at Terminal 1.

Environmental protection has numerous aspects relating to the way we access airports; tens of thousands of people commute to airports by road on a daily basis. To reduce the energy consumption and the environmental pollution resulting from this, the habits of passengers and airport staff members need to be changed, in addition to many other possible developments. As part of sustainable operation, Budapest Airport, the operator of Ferenc Liszt International Airport, pays special attention to the accessibility of the airport, from an environmental and infrastructural aspect as well. These efforts fit in well with the development concepts of the partners participating in the “Sustainable airport accessibility” project. The 14 partners, which included Central European airports, development agencies and local municipalities, formulated their development ideas in the LAirA (Landside Airport Accessibility) project, which was supported by the EU’s Interreg CE (Central-Europe) program. The aim of the project is to aid the integration of intelligent and low-emission transport solutions into the daily commute to urban airports.

As part of the project, Budapest Airport conducted a survey amongst passengers and employees last year. The results revealed that 60% of staff commute to work by car. To reduce the environmental pollution resulting from this, the airport operator developed a mobile application together with Oszkár, a Hungarian ride sharing service provider, whereby employees can share their trips with each other, and thus reduce the environmental burdens of their commute to work.

Using the information and the international best practices gathered in the course of the LAirA project, Budapest Airport also formulated its own, comprehensive mobility strategy. The construction of a turbo roundabout between main road number 4 and Terminal 2 commenced this year, which will manage the increasing passenger traffic of the airport and the cargo traffic turning off towards the newly opened Cargo City rapidly and efficiently. Budapest Airport also increased the number of chargers for electric vehicles available around the airport; 4 dedicated e-chargers are provided for cars used in airport operation. More charging stations are being established and the vehicles used at the airport are being replaced on a continuous basis. Our partners operating at the airport are also developing; the electric taxis used by Főtaxi can use 5 fast chargers and passengers arriving at the airport with electric vehicles have access to a fast charger in Terminal Parking. The airport operator also provides 15 dedicated parking spaces for the users of the MOL Limo car sharing service, with 6 charging stations to be installed during the summer of 2020.

An airport is a city in a city; BUD operates day and night on an area of approximately 1500 hectares, with numerous buildings and its own infrastructure. Accordingly, airport operation requires a comprehensive approach and mindset, whereby Budapest Airport has implemented numerous environmental protection measures. Ferenc Liszt International Airport has been certified carbon neutral for more than two years now, and has committed to reduce the harmful emissions of the airport to zero by 2050.