Real Betis Balompie Attends the Launch of Coca-Cola’s Mares Circulares Bench

Real Betis Balompie Attends the Launch of Coca-Cola’s Mares Circulares Bench

The bench has been installed in the Alamillo Park as a token of appreciation to the volunteers – including Forever Green volunteers – from the province of Seville for their participation in Mares Circulares (Circular Seas) by collecting 2,281.93 kg of rubbish from aquatic environments in 2022.

Mares Circulares, Coca-Cola’s most ambitious project for cleaning up coasts and seabeds, raising public awareness and developing the circular economy in Spain and Portugal, delivers in Seville one of the 18 benches that Mares Circulares, together with Asociación Vertidos Cero, is making with 100% recycled plastic. At least 30% of which comes from marine waste was collected from the seabed by the more than 500 fishermen participating in the project. An example of circular economy thanks to Mares Circulares’ commitment to scientific innovation.

The installation of the Coca-Cola Circular Seas bench in Seville is a gesture of gratitude to the citizens and local entities that have voluntarily participated in the clean-ups organised in the surroundings of the Guadalquivir River, actions in which Forever Green volunteers have participated repeatedly.

Present at the presentation of the bench were Susana Cayuelas, Territorial Delegate of Development in Seville and Rafael Carmona, President of the Port of Seville and entities and associations that have collaborated as volunteers in the clean-ups in previous years such as: Sevilla FC, Real Betis Balompié, Escuela de Hostelería de Sevilla, Proyecto Hombre, Grupo Serenísima, Hotel Kivir and ESIC.

In total, 18 benches are being manufactured in an artisanal way with between 30% and 50% of non-PET plastic. This is a material whose origin is marine waste that has been collected from the sea thanks to the efforts of more than 500 fishermen from 104 boats in fifteen Spanish ports.

“With this project, Coca-Cola is redoubling its commitment to research and innovation to find solutions to the problem of marine waste. The development of this bench represents a breakthrough in innovation applied to the circular economy that characterises Mares Circulares. A milestone that joins the achievement already achieved in previous editions of reusing PET plastic, which we collect in the cleaning of aquatic environments, in the production of the first bottle with 25% of marine PET suitable for food use.”

Manuela Carretero, representative of Coca-Cola Europacific Partners in Seville

Susana Cayuelas, Territorial delegate for Development in Seville, thanked Coca-Cola Europacific Partners for choosing the Alamillo Park for

“The installation of a bench that perfectly embodies the imperative need for all of us to get involved in caring for our planet”. “And what better setting than this green lung that Seville has in the Alamillo Park, which is involved in a Europe-wide programme to promote good practices among its users to achieve zero waste.

Susana Cayuelas, Territorial delegate for Development in Seville

18 Benches 18 Ports

The aim is to install these benches in cities such as Madrid or Seville and ports that are members of the Mares Circulares programme as a token of gratitude to the volunteers and fishermen in each of the cities and ports that collaborate with Mares Circulares. In addition to Almería and Garrucha (Almería), Gijón and Llanes (Asturias), the benches of Punta del Moral (Ayamonte), La restinga (El Hierro, Canary Islands), Isla Cristina and Punta Umbría (Huelva), Caleta de Vélez and Marbella (Málaga), Andratx (Mallorca), San Martín de Valdeiglesias (Madrid) and Bueu (Pontevedra) can already be visited. Soon it will be possible to visit the benches in Carboneras (Almería), Muros (La Coruña), Santa Uxía de Ribeira (La Coruña), Fuengirola (Málaga) and Santoña (Cantabria).

Each of these benches has a maximum length of two metres and 67 centimetres and a width of 45 centimetres. They are blue-green in colour, reflecting debris from the sea, and their shape is reminiscent of sea waves.

5,200 Kilos of Marine Litter Collected from the Seas

Mares Circulares has managed to give a second life to non-PET plastic, such as the remains of nets, pots, bags or highly degraded and mixed film found in our seas and oceans, which need to be recycled. Their reuse is now possible thanks to a pioneering technology promoted in collaboration with Asociación Vertidos Cero, AIMPLAS, (the Valencia Plastics Technology Institute) and Plàstic Preciós, an NGO in raising awareness of the circular economy and plastic recycling; within the framework of this project.

To make these benches, 5,200 kilos of marine litter recovered from the sea in 2022 were processed.

“This material has been obtained thanks to the efforts of fishermen. All of them are volunteers who make an extra effort to separate the waste on the boat, take it to land, dump it and ensure that the waste is properly managed,”

Estíbaliz López-Samaniego, project manager of the Zero Waste Association

For the manufacturing process of the benches, AIMPLAS receives the plastic mixture from the ports, conditions it and grinds it, at which stage it is passed on to the NGO Plàstic Preciós, which transforms it, and handcrafts a bench containing 30% of marine plastic, approximately 13.5 kilos. This procedure makes it easier to follow the traceability of the material used in its manufacture and can be checked by means of a QR code incorporated into the bench itself.