In the summer of 2019, Coca-Cola Hungary joined efforts with water management authorities and an NGO and committed to clean up Hungary's second largest river, the Tisza. In the course of the two-years-long Zero Waste Tisza River program, nearly 170 employees of the company have taken part in three actions with the Plastic Cup volunteers, where they have cleaned the river from a total of 7 tonnes of waste. Coca-Cola's global philanthropic arm, The Coca-Cola Foundation supported the programme with 250,000 USD, and as a result, nearly 80 tonnes of waste were taken out of the river in this period.

The Zero Waste Tisza River program gave much more than just short-term waste collection to the river and program participants: they started GPS-based tracking for waste mapping, built the first Kisköre River Saver Center and, using plastic as a useful secondary raw material, crafted prototypes of a unique Plastic Kayak. Based on the successes of the last years, the program has earned its next phase and another $150,000 grant, thus the Tisza clean-up and education program can continue for another full year from September 2021. In this next phase, the goal is to execute programs that can reach significant behaviour change at the source of the river Tisza, to get closer to the sources of the problem and to find a long-term solution.

A significant amount of driftwood, organic material and communal waste go down in the river Tisza with the floods every year. In 2019, after the spring floods, a record amount of waste consisting of driftwood and household garbage – mainly plastic – has hit the Kisköre dam again. The size of the drift-field reached 17,000 square metres and was more than 3 metres high right at the dam. A collaboration was needed to effectively solve this problem. Water management authorities, civilian and industry players – the General Directorate of Water Management, Plastic Cup and Coca‑Cola Hungary – announced in the summer of 2019 that they were prepared to manage the challenge collectively. The Plastic Cup has held waste collecting activities on the Upper Tisza for years, which the Coca‑Cola joined so that they could help manage the situation with its employees’ volunteer work and a financial support of 250,000 USD (approx. 73 million HUF) provided by the global foundation of the company. The Zero Waste Tisza River program was launched in the summer of 2019, aimed at providing constant protection, waste collection and recycling – by cleaning up the river in an increasing proportion.

Thanks to success of the program, the Tisza clean-up and education program can continue for another full year from September 2021, with an additional $150,000 grant. In this next phase, the goal is to execute programs that can reach significant behaviour change at the source of the river Tisza, to get closer to the sources of the problem and to find a long-term solution.

The official closure of the first two-year phase and the announcement about its continuation was topped with a volunteering day on the 27^th of August 2021 in Kisköre. More than 50 Coca-Cola volunteers collected nearly 650 kg of waste, which was later sorted with the help of Plastic Cup volunteers.