The company recovers paper through a waste separation station located in Santa Ana, where waste arrives from 16 municipalities in the country. Thanks to an automated sorting process, usable waste is separated and transferred to Geocycle - a leading subsidiary company in sustainable waste management - to be treated and converted into energy. In this way, the resource is revalued and reused, promoting the circular economy.

"This certification is the result of a strategy to recover from the environment a greater amount of paper than that generated in our cement packaging. In this way, we will recover 20% more of the paper we generate through packaging by 2023. The projection for 2024 is to recover 66% more than the paper used to market the different varieties of cement", said Jorge Peña, Geocycle and Sustainability manager of Holcim El Salvador.

Geocycle has become a key ally in meeting environmental objectives related to waste management, as part of the waste comes from municipal waste, which is transformed into energy and incorporated into the cement manufacturing process. This generates a circular economy model.

"Our mission is to reduce our environmental footprint, and this Empaque Positivo declaration is in addition to the reduction of paper use in cement packaging that we will achieve starting in 2023 through the spreader, a cement spreader for road works that uses bulk cement instead of packaged cement. With this strategy, during 2023, we will stop generating waste equivalent to 60,000 paper bags", said Peña.

The declaration is the result of a specialized audit that was carried out throughout 2023. SSG issued the certification on january 12, 2024, and it will be valid until january 11, 2027. Holcim thus becomes the first company in the country to have a certification of this type that is aligned with its commitment to reducing its environmental impact, sustainability, and waste reduction in both the production and post-consumption stages.

Holcim is innovating with sustainability to continue to be the strategic partner of the construction industry, generating direct and indirect jobs, technifying labor and investing millions of dollars annually to continue expanding both its portfolio of solutions and its geographic coverage to be closer to its customers.

Translated by: A.M