MORE THAN 50 VOLUNTEERS CLEANED THE VILA NORA BEACH IN RIJEKA

This year’s edition of From Source to Sea (“Od izvora do mora”), an environmental project implemented by Coca-Cola, Konzum and Jutarnji list that promotes preservation of Croatian water resources and encourages proper disposal of packaging waste, continued with the cleanup of the Vila Nora beach in Rijeka.

Thanks to the organisational efforts of the Marco Polo Diving Club, more than fifty volunteers joined the initiative to clean up the Vila Nora beach, one of the most beautiful beaches in Rijeka. During the cleanup, the volunteers collected six tonnes of waste, which was properly disposed of after the event.

The project has been endorsed by the Primorje-Gorje County, and its representative, Zlatko Komadina, County Prefect, who attended the cleanup, said: “I welcome this praise-worthy initiative and would like to thank the organisers and the divers who have volunteered to participate in this event. Although Rijeka is a city with industrial facilities on its coast, it also boasts beautiful beaches that offer high water quality despite such co-existence. I often stress that the sea is one of our most important and most valuable resources and that we therefore have a great responsibility and obligation to preserve the Kvarner waters and align the economic activities we carry out by or on the sea with the highest environmental standards. It is precisely our County that was one of the first in Croatia to conduct a strategic environmental impact assessment to support its Physical Plan in an effort to strictly ensure that, in the execution of all planned projects, not only the most favourable, but also the most environmentally friendly solutions are implemented. And we will not change our position.”   

“Aware of the problem of packaging waste in the environment, we launched the From Source to Sea project in 2018 seeking to draw attention to the importance of responsible disposal of packaging waste and preservation of water resources. This year’s edition of the project, organised in cooperation with Konzum and Jutarnji list as project partners, included cleanup campaigns all across Croatia – from Osijek, Valpovo, Bjelovar and Varaždin, via Karlovac and Duga Resa, all the way to the island of Čiovo. We want to thank all the towns and associations that have recognised and endorsed our project, and especially our hosts today – the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County and the Marco Polo Diving Club. The project seeks to communicate the message that packaging must be disposed of properly and not discarded in the environment,” said Bruno Jelić, Director of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Department at Coca-Cola HBC Adria.

This year’s edition of the project has been given an extra boost through partnership with Konzum. Its representative, Miljana Ljubić-Gojković, Assistant Director of Konzum’s Region West, said: “I am proud that Konzum has joined this project, and that we are part of this praise-worthy initiative which promotes cleaning up the areas alongside Croatian water bodies. This is yet another in the series of projects we endorse with the aim of protecting the environment and ensuring a better and healthier future for the generations to come. Our company goes to great lengths to make real changes in the communities in which we operate, and we will continue to do so in the future as well.”

Goran Ogurlić, Editor-in-Chief of Jutarnji list, the media partner and co-organiser of this year’s edition of the From Source to Sea project said: “Jutarnji list has been a proud partner to the From Source to Sea project since last year. I am truly happy that From Source to Sea, a project Jutarnji list joined last year, has brought us to Rijeka today. After Osijek, Trogir and Duga Resa, today we had a chance to make this extraordinary beach in Kantrida also more beautiful and cleaner. Last year, in partnership with Coca-Cola, we helped remove more than 16 tonnes of waste from nature, and this year, after Konzum has joined our efforts, the results are even more impressive. I thank the divers from the Marco Polo Diving Club who have set aside their free time this Saturday to dive under the surface of the sea and remove from that priceless resource all that the reckless individuals have discarded into it.”

From Source to Sea is a project implemented as part of the World Without Waste initiative, a comprehensive, multi-year program under which The Coca-Cola Company has committed itself, among other things, to collecting and recycling a bottle or can for every one it sells, to using at least 50 % recycled material in primary packaging by 2030, and to making all primary packaging 100 % recyclable by 2025. In the past 10 years, simply by using lighter bottles, Coca-Cola cut its total plastic consumption by a quarter.