Dorna becomes "water that takes care of water"

Dorna natural mineral water brand takes a new step towards a waste-free world and announces the launch of a Romanian river cleaning campaign

This fall, Dorna announces a new long-term commitment as part of its sustainability strategy - becoming water-minded water. In this regard, Dorna will launch a campaign to clean up rivers in Romania, which will begin later this year.

The campaign, initiated in partnership with the Romanian Waters National Administration and developed with the support of non-governmental organizations CSR Nest Romania and Clear Rivers - The Netherlands, will take place in stages and will involve the installation of innovative waste collection devices transported by river waters. In the first stage of this campaign, two of the most important rivers of the country are targeted, namely Ialomița and Dâmbovița.

The Dorna campaign will continue the clean-up actions in the coming years, river by river, so that, in the future, the waters flowing into the Danube and the Black Sea will be cleaner.

“Caring for the environment has always been part of the identity of the Dorna brand. In 2014, Dorna was the first brand of bottled water in an innovative type of packaging, made in proportion of 30% of plants - Plant Bottle. This launch was completed, over time, by constant efforts to reduce the plastic content of packaging, through changes in glass and lid, so that, in 2020, Dorna becomes the first natural mineral water in Romania available in rPET - packaging made of 100% recycled PET. Water that takes care of water is, therefore, a natural continuation for a brand that has made a habit of acting with care and responsibility towards nature ", says Iuliana Nedelcu, Marketing Director of Coca-Cola Romania.

“Each type of packaging can play a role in a circular economy and can become a valuable resource again, if collected separately, recycled and reused. This is also the reason why we start cleaning the rivers and we invite all those who want to join us to contribute with a gesture that may seem small, but which has a very big impact: to collect the plastic separately from the rest of the waste and thus to recycle again and again ", continued Iuliana Nedelcu.

Dorna has started the steps for installing the devices that will capture the waste transported by the currents of the two rivers - Ialomița and Dâmbovița. They will be located along the water and will start operating by the end of this year, the commissioning depending on the weather conditions this winter.

The floating devices, developed by the non-profit organization Clear Rivers in the Netherlands, extract waste from the water in a passive way: they do not require energy or human intervention to operate, but rely exclusively on wind and water currents, which push the waste into inside the devices. Known as The Litter Trap, these devices are, in fact, floating systems, capable of capturing garbage from the surface of the water to a depth of 1 m under water.

Increasing the collection capacity is done with the help of floating arms, spread across the width of the river, to cover as large an area as possible. The waste thus captured is directed to a “trap” from where, once collected, it can no longer escape back to the surface of the river, even if the current changes its direction, being blocked by an innovative system with a semi-closed door. The traps are, in turn, made of plastic collected from the water and subsequently recycled. This feature turns these devices into “circular” products: the collection of floating waste is done with the help of previously collected plastic from other watercourses.

Once put into operation, the devices will be able to collect up to 5 cubic meters of waste each day (for a single device), the amount can vary depending on several factors, such as the type and weight of plastic collected, weather conditions, currents water and wind etc. The waste accumulated by each device will then be sent to the sorting station and then redirected to recycling plants to be transformed into new materials or, in the case of degraded objects, to those that recover packaging waste by incineration.

Beyond the direct impact on the environment through packaging innovation, reuse of resources and measures to reduce pollution, Dorna's goal is to persuade as many people as possible to participate in this change by adopting environmentally responsible behavior and learning the principles of separate collection. The Dorna initiative is thus part of the vision of the sustainability platform of the Coca-Cola System, After Us - #NuNeOprimAici.

Dorna plans to continue the campaign next year, when, on the list of cleaned water, new rivers will be added.