According to the counter of Plastic Cup (PET Kupa), up until this moment a total of 119 tons of waste have been removed from Hungarian waters, primarily from the Tisza river. This is already an outstanding accomplishment in itself, but what truly makes them Highlights-worthy is their incredible awareness-raising ability with which they could transform their waste picking campaigns into a community adventure. In 2020, for the first time in the history of Highlights, they get to represent their organization as a team amongst Highlights ambassadors.
The Plastic Cup won the Highlights ambassadors’ award in 2019. As to the changes this win brough into their lives, one of the team members, Viktória Doró explained: as the award ceremony proceeded from the tenth place to the first, they were more and more convinced that they didn’t have a chance for winning. For many, waste picking equals a memory of being forced to go out to the schoolyard on Earth Day and pick soda cans. They never thought they could win. They felt that what they were doing wasn’t “urban”, trendy and innovative enough. Finally when they heard their name being announced as one of the first-place winners, they couldn’t have been happier!
“Even though the Highlights ambassadors’ code requires us to take a step beyond our field, it can still be seen that all of our nominees meet some kind of sustainability criteria – may it be a social or design-type of nomination. We believe in a more livable world, and we live our everydays accordingly, and obviously it also shows in our choices”– Szilvia Dóra, another member of the team told us when asked about their nominations for 2020.
Highlights of Hungary’s slogan this year is „Hass, alkoss, gyarapíts!” (a line from Ferenc Kölcsey’s poem Huszt, unofficial translation: “Affect, create, enrich!”), in relation to which the team of Plastic Cup highlighted: environmental challenges affect all of us, already in the present, and more and more influence our living standards. We can do something about starting positive changes with the Plastic Cup campaign, and within the movement of Highlights – not only on the level of words, but as active humans, too. The number pirates of Plastic Cup is continuously on the rise, and of course Highlights also plays a huge role in this. With this year’s nominations, they would like to offer this community experience to other projects and organizations that need positive feedback just as much as they did.
Learn more about the activity of Plastic Cup! You can check out the Highlights video made of Plastic Cup by clicking here – the video is the courtesy of Telekom.
Plastic Cup | Web | Facebook | Instagram
Highlights of Hungary | Web | Facebook | Instagram
Architecture history in short story length | 10+1 Budapest
Synthesis of Bauhaus and nature | Alma Vetlényi
