Corona's home is the beach. They've teamed up with Parley for the Oceans, an organisation dedicated to addressing major threats towards our oceans. Together, they've made a commitment to clean ocean plastic from 100 islands across the world by 2020.VICE travelled to Tulum, Mexico (on behalf of Corona) to learn more about the partnership and solutions for reducing ocean waste.According to The Environment Protection Authority, every piece of plastic ever made still exists today. It's a material created to last forever, but we treat a lot of it as disposable. Plastic cutlery, shopping bags, water bottles—we use them, throw them away, and never think about them again.
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10 million tonnes of plastic ends up in the ocean each year via stormwater drains, by floating up-river, or by blowing away from landfill and being carried to coastline areas.Five huge vortexes around the world collect the waste. Nearly 20 million kilos of this has accumulated in the North Pacific Ocean vortex alone.Besides trashing our beaches, seabeds, and waves, what does this mean? Ocean waste affects everything from the oxygen we consume (did you know every second breath you take is generated by the sea?) to fertility (if we consume fish who themselves have consumed plastic, we directly ingest toxic plastic particles and BPAs).What's more, leading environmentalists see the end of most sea life happening within the next 6–16 years.It's an issue we're all part of. So what can we do?Parley are a group working with the UN, NASA, and a range of brands, environmentalists, and creative industries to bring light and solutions to the issue. They predict that by 2025 all coral reef ecosystems will be gone, and that by 2048 commercial fisheries will collapse.They have created the A.I.R strategy: Avoid new plastics; Intercept the plastic that already exists through things like recycling and clean-ups; and Redesign an alternative by working with creatives to find a plastic replacement.VICE spent some time in Tulum, where we observed the beautiful scenery as well as pieces of ocean plastic quickly collected at these sites alone.
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The only way to combat ocean waste is to become involved. You can find out more about the work that Corona and Parley are doing at CoronaXParley.com, and learn about ways that you can help.