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. Since the start of th Zero Waste Tisza River prorgam more than 200 employees of the company have taken part in eight actions with the Plastic Cup volunteers, where they have cleaned the river from a total of 10 tonnes of waste. Coca-Cola's global philanthropic arm, The Coca-Cola Foundation has donated a total of USD 400,000 (HUF 120 million) to the Természetfilm.hu Association, operating Plastic Cup since 2019.

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. In the framework of the program, Platic Cup experts and external specialists developed a mobile water purifying container will provide relevant support to improve waste collection and treatment in Subcarpathia, providing clean water and waste pollution prevention.

The participants of the Zero Waste Tisza River program will continue to work to ensure that riverine waste is recovered, sorted and recycled in innovative ways, both at source and at the point of control, while helping develop the necessary elements of modern waste management in the areas left behind.  

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.

With this joint effort, the target set in 2019 – to collect 80 tonnes of waste – was achieved. Thanks to the succes of the program, the Tisza clean-up and awarness-raising program could continue 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.

The first Zero Waste Tisza River volunteer day of 2023 took place on 21 July, which was implemented using a different waste collection method than the previous ones. 25 Coca-Cola employees cleared the river on a 11 kilometre stretch of river between Tiszafüred and Tiszabábolna, collecting 69 bags (534 kilograms) of waste. 

One of latest result of the Zero Waste Tisza River program is the Safe Water Access Point (SWAP), which combines technological innovation with community features. The core of the SWAP is a water purification device, which was unveiled September 2022 at Lake Tisza, where project participants had the opportunity to taste the pure drinking water of the Tisza.

In order to protect the cleanliness of rivers, the new container will also serve as a collection point for plastic and recyclable waste, which is important in areas where separate waste collection and waste shipment are not available. In Ukraine, at the source of the Tisza River, a lot of plastic waste is discharged into the river due to the lack of public services - the container addresses this challenge and also play an awareness-raising role about the importance of clean rivers.