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CCI Kazakhstan Launches 3.2.1 Start Project with the Plastic in Art Exhibition

Coca-Cola İçecek (CCI) Kazakhstan launches the 8th round of the flagship youth empowerment project, "3.2.1. Start!" with an art exhibition on recycled plastic. The exhibition showcasing the “second life” of the plastics will be open to public from April 27th to May 3rd at the Forum shopping mall (617 Seifullina Avenue).  

This year, the 3.2.1 Start! Project will solely focus on the development and promotion of various plastic collection and recycling methods among the youth of Kazakhstan. This new approach is in line with CCI’s Sustainability Commitments on packaging under which CCI Kazakhstan will collect 100% of the plastic it produces by 2030.  

With the project, CCI Kazakhstan aims to attract students of 10 leading universities of the country from 6 cities, who will then jointly develop ideas for sorting and collecting waste for recycling purposes. The participants of this year’s "3.2.1. Start!" project will have to come up with an execution plan for collecting, sorting and recycling waste at their universities. A financial grant will be awarded to the winning team which will be utilized to execute the concept at their university. Furthermore, the winning team will receive commercial grade plastic recycling equipment to give the collected waste a ‘second’ life. 

"We firmly believe that thanks to the joint efforts of students, the eco-community of Kazakhstan, representatives of business and the government, we will be able to find many interesting ways to achieve our goal – to introduce packaging waste segregation and, as a result, to develop the raw material recycling industry. The whole world strives for a circular economy, and we believe that Kazakhstan has all the opportunities for its development" said Alima Isembayeva, Director of Corporate Relations and Sustainable Development Projects at CCI Kazakhstan. 

In addition, within the framework of the "3.2.1. Start!" project, CCI Kazakhstan aims to create awareness on waste recycling through the Plastic in Art exhibition where many different exhibits made of recycled plastic are being showcased. Visitors of the exhibition will learn about the importance of sorting waste, how it can be implemented at homes and what happens to the collected waste. The exhibit features a variety of unique recycled pieces, for example, a transparent vase made from 29 plastic bottles by Trashback, and a t-shirt made from 15 plastic bottles by NOA. The winners of 2022 3.2.1 Start! Project, Rocket Plastic, have also created a bench from recycled plastics.   

Previously, as part of the CCI Kazakhstan’s eco-marathon held in Almaty, 2.95 tons of plastic was collected, out of which more than 300 kg was used to produce 10 benches and later donated to the city of Almaty. These benches can be seen in Gorky Park. It is worth noting that thanks to the support of the Akimat of Almaty and the PlastNet network, it was possible to collect this huge amount of plastic.