Holcim Costa Rica wins Positive Packaging Certification

As part of its efforts aimed at operating as a responsible company with the environment and with people, Holcim Costa Rica became the first subsidiary of Holcim in the world to obtain the Positive Packaging distinction, by recovering 14,000t of paper from various classes to co-process them as energy and compensate for the 1500t emitted in their packaging.

"Costa Rica is a benchmark in sustainability, globally recognised for its policies in favour of the environment and society. We are proud to be the first subsidiary of Grupo Holcim in the world to obtain this distinction validated by a certifying body, and offer the builder the guarantee that they can reduce their environmental footprint when using our products," said Andrea Lara, CEO of Holcim Costa Rica.

This process is aligned with the renewal of its policies and directives regarding the reduction and recovery of waste. "Waste management is a global challenge, so this project has a direct impact on our contribution as a company to the vision of sustainability for the country," says Catalina Mora, Sustainability Coordinator at Holcim Costa Rica.

The recovery of the 14,000t of paper during 2021 was developed through the return of bags of post-consumer cement from Holcim Costa Rica clients and through the municipal waste management programme, led by the company's subsidiary, Geocycle. Between them, the milestone of recovering 600 times the amount of paper used in cement bags was achieved.

Geocycle, a subsidiary company of Holcim Costa Rica, is key in this process, as it performs three critical stages. "The first of them corresponds to the industrial recovery of materials from municipal waste. In a second stage, they are transformed into an input that is then used for the last stage that consists of their integration, as energy, into the productive process of cement manufacturing; thus generating a circular economy model ,” explained Wilkie Mora, manager of Geocycle Costa Rica.

The international certifier Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS) issued the certification or validation of the declaration of 100 per cent of Recovered Energy and Packaging Positive under ISO 14021: 2016.