The "Coast Cleaning 2017" campaign has started in the town of Cóbrezes, with the help of 31 students from the Santa Juliana school who cleaned 1.7 km of coast

The Ecomar and Coca-Cola Foundation have carried out their first joint cost cleaning of the 2017 season in collaboration with 31 children from the Santa Juliana school in Santillana del Mar in Cantabria. This is a cleaning of solidarity that was carried out on the beach of Luaña and nearby, along 1.7 kilometres rocky of which 223 kilos of waste were extracted, which the sea has returned to the land, from where they first came out for the bad actions of humans, which instead of recycling, we throw the waste away anywhere and they go to the rivers and from there, to the sea.

The cleaning of Luaña has been attended by Theresa Zabell, president of Ecomar and double Olympic sailing champion, who explained to the children the importance of recycling to care for our planet. Theresa influenced that "we only have one body and one planet, and therefore we cannot change them, so we must try to take care of them very well. Today you have done two very important actions, that of cleaning the sea and giving your solidarity to the most disadvantaged, as these kilos that you have collected today, Coca- Cola will translate the cans of products, which will be delivered to the Food Bank." Theresa Zabell was accompanied by Enrique Bretones, Mayor of Alfoz de Lloredo, who thanked the schoolchildren "for this action so solidarity with our shores, which will gradually reverse on our planet," Milagros Carmona, Council of Education and Culture, Anne Epalza, Communication Manager of the North of Coca- Cola European Partners and representatives of the Food Bank, who thanked the children for their solidarity and encouraged them to do so more times.

One more year the Ecomar and Coca-Cola Foundation are joining together to continue to raise awareness of the importance of keeping our planet clean through this campaign, which both organizations have been carrying out for seven years, collecting waste from different points of the Iberian peninsula with great success. This initiative, led and created by the Ecomar Foundation and promoted by Coca- Cola, aims to raise awareness among the smaller ones of the importance of keeping our seas and coasts clean and teaching them to recycle waste by depositing them in the appropriate containers.

Since 2011, Ecomar and Coca-Cola, thanks to the help of 960 schoolchildren and 128 volunteers, have cleaned more than 31 km of coast, through 20 cleanings that have only been the collection of almost two tons of waste and more than 62,000 cans of product donated to the Food Bank since 2014.

This year, 6 cleaners are to be carried out at different points of the Iberian peninsula during the months of June and July with students from 7 to 14 years of schools and nautical clubs in the area. The president of the Ecomar Foundation, Theresa Zabell, will also give a master class on recycling to boys and girls who participate in each of the cleaners. The next destination will be the Cape of Gata on July 4 with students from the Sailing Surf School. Then, on 6 July, in Valencia with students from the sailing school of the Royal Nautical Club of Valencia; on 12 July at the Puente del Duque in Hoyos del Espino in the middle of the mountains of Gredos; and at the end of July in Vilagarcía de Arosa (Pontevedra), with students from the Galician de Vela Centre. The initiative has crossed borders and for two years the Ecomar and Coca- Cola Foundation also work with schoolchildren from Portugal, where the "Cleanup of Costas" programme has been very welcome. Thus, in 2017 one of the planned cleaning will be done in Setúbal, with the students of the Clube do Sado and the hand of the Portuguese Olympic regatist, Nuno Barreto. From Coca- Cola they highlight the importance of collaborating in this type of initiatives that "are part of our commitment to the environment and to society and which, in addition, help to raise awareness about the relevance of the protection of our environment."