A group of volunteers withdraws over 15 kilos of waste in Cala Galdana

The project for protection and conservation of aquatic environments and the biodiversity of Mares Circulares, boosted by Coca-Cola and Ilunion Hotels, has achieved the withdrawal of 130 kilos of waste in Cala Galdana between the three cleaning sessions carried out from 2023.

The objective of the initiative is boosting the cleaning of beaches in the island of Menorca, according to Coca-Cola and the hotel company of the ONCE Social Group in a report this Monday, a day in which 43 volunteers have participated in a new withdrawal of waste.

For the third consecutive year, the withdrawal journey in Cala Galdana has taken place, where a total of 18,18 kilos of waste have been collected.

In total, this alliance within the framework of the program Mares Circulares has allowed collecting over 130 kilos of waste between the three cleaning carried out in Cala Galdana by 154 volunteers since the beginning of this collaboration in 2023.

In addition, the action of this year has had the collaboration of Colegio San Francisco de Asís, Club de Jubilados de Ferreries and Ferreries Town Hall.

The collected waste during the cleaning has been classified by the Chelonia Association for its recycling, and all the obtained data will be collected, analyzed and added to the data base of the project.

According to the highlights, this information, that is added to the periodical tracking and collection since the first edition in 2018, puts into disposition of investigators and scientists for the development of new innovative proposals that have a real impact in the conservation of marine environments.

For the director of Sustainability and Excellence of Ilunion Hotels, Elena Martín, developing this initiative “means taking into practice" the “commitment with sustainability from a real and measurable perspective”.

“The alliance with Mares Circulares allows us to contribute to the conversation of the coastal ecosystems and, at the same time, to sensitize our teams and guests regarding the importance of acting responsibly with the environment”, she has added.

On his behalf, the director of the hotel Ilunion Menorca, Iván García, has put into value the increase of the volunteers in every edition. In his opinion, this initiative “already forms part of the hotel’s commitment with the island and with its community”, and shows that collaboration between companies, administrations and civilization “can generate a positive and lasting impact on the environment”.

In addition, the manager of Public Matters, Communication and Sustainability of Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Iberia in the Balearics, Gabriel Mulet, has pointed out that “the importance of alliances and collaborations to achieve objectives such as the ones proposed by Mares Circulares and advancing this way to a free-waste world and marine environment”.

In this same line, Mulet has remarked the necessity of acting to preserve these ecosystems and creating awareness of the necessity to put actions that boost the circular economy into force.

“One of the differential elements of this project is that, after over seven years, we have a database that offers much more interesting information to the scientific community to advance in the search for solutions to this problem”, has indicated as well as he has thanked the labour to the volunteers.

On his behalf, councillor of Economic Development, Education, Tourism and Parties of the Town Hall of Ferreries, Ramón Sintes, has expressed his satisfaction for collaborating with Ilunion Hotels and the project Mares Circulares.

Equally, he has thanked the participation of the Colegio San Francisco de Asís and the Club de Jubilados de Ferreries that “show a firm commitment with the protection of the environment and the elimination of plastics of the coast”.

“This is already the third edition of the initiative and, this year, we have been able to contribute with the installation of a bench in the maritime promenade of Cala Galdana, built with plastic collected by volunteers”, he has celebrated.

On a national level, Mares Circulares recollected in 2024 over 376 tons of waste in Spain’s aquatic environments, thanks to a network of collaboration composed by 9.731 volunteers and confraternities of fishmongers of 16 fishing ports.

This last year, 169 waste collecting and cleaning actions have been carried out in beaches and aquatic environments and 22 marien reserves and natural protected environments.