A total of 81 volunteers have participated in the waste collection day at Abades beach (Arico). This cleaning has been organized by Coca-Cola and has had the collaboration of the Arico City Council, the Terramare Association and the Cabildo de Tenerife.
This initiative is part of Coca-Cola’s ‘Circular Seas’ program, which since 2018 has managed to collect more than 1,513 tons of waste from beaches and other aquatic environments. In addition, the PET collected in the cleanups is reintegrated into the Coca-Cola value chain as part of its roadmap towards the circular economy.
Víctor Morales Saavedra, Head of Communication and International Relations and Sustainability of the Canary Islands of Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Iberia, has highlighted the importance of collaboration between different institutions in “favor of environmental sustainability and awareness to ensure that our marine environments are preserved and no residue ends up on them. We must be aware that we all have a responsibility that we must assume to leave future generations a better environment than the one we find ourselves in. We appreciate the collaboration of the volunteers who have given an example of what, together, we are capable of achieving”.
Beyond a waste collection
The cleaning of beaches and aquatic environments is one of the three pillars that make up Mares Circulares. Prior to these cleaning activities, and by the Chelonia Association, the spaces are monitored twice a year with the aim of having a sampling of the waste found following the recommendations of the MITERD, the OSPAR Convention and the Barcelona Protocol. These monitoring feed information to important marine debris monitoring programs. This is the case of the “Monitoring Program for Marine Litter on Beaches” of the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge.
Circular Seas
‘Mares Circulares’ is a network project promoted by Coca-Cola in Spain and Portugal, for the cleaning of coasts, aquatic environments and seabeds, raising awareness and training on recycling and promoting the circular economy. The Program promotes the environmental conservation of ecosystems, biodiversity and, from 2022, integrates climate change in all its lines of action. Mares Circulares is part of Coca-Cola’s global strategy ‘World Without Waste’ (‘A world without waste’) and, in Western Europe, in the ‘Moving Forward’ strategy, specifically in its packaging pillar. Coca-Cola thus goes one step further in its efforts to contribute to the conservation of the planet and in its commitment to collect and recycle the equivalent of 100% of the packaging it sells.
The project has the collaboration of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA), through the General Secretariat of Fisheries and the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITERD) and is developed in collaboration with the Chelonia Association, the Wastewater Association Zero, Ecomar Foundation and League for the Protection of Nature (LPN).
Circular Seas in figures: since 2018, more than 1,200 entities have collaborated (city councils, schools, organizations, sports and maritime clubs, etc.), more than 1,500 tons of waste have been removed, thanks to the collaboration of 30,000 volunteers who have intervened in the cleaning of more than 400 beaches and aquatic environments. In addition, through training and environmental awareness workshops, more than 68,000 people have been reached and 12 research projects and 4 start-ups that propose innovative solutions to the problem of marine litter from an economic approach have been supported and financed. circular. Every year, more than 100 ships from 17 ports collaborate in the collection of seabed waste and, from 2022, the non-PET plastics collected by them are being transformed into banks that will be installed in the collaborating ports.
More information: https://www.cocacolaespana.es/mares-circulares
