2023-10-27 17:04:00
Fishermen from Guanabara Bay, in Rio de Janeiro, found a plastic bottle commemorating the 1998 World Cup on Pontal Island, in São Gonçalo. It was among the garbage on one of the bay’s beaches and was recovered by members of the Águas da Guanabara project, which eliminates solid waste thrown into the sea. “When I took this bottle, which I pulled out of the mud, I saw the little dolls. I was near my boss and I told her: ‘look what I found, from the World Cup, from the mini-cracks’. It’s a bottle that has been in the sea for many years,” says fisherman Rogério Antunes, mentioning the collectibles that represented the players in the Coca-Cola advertising campaign.
Despite being dirty and covered in cracks, the bottle was still intact and had its label preserved. In it you can see the illustrations of the players Dunga and Romário, who were part of the brand’s merchandising during the 1998 World Cup in France.
“The bottle even has a more resistant plastic, which at that time Coca-Cola and other companies used to use. It looked like one of those returnable bottles. Not today, the plastics are thinner,” observes Antunes. Two and a half decades later, the bottle was found earlier this month, without the cap, of course. According to Ibama, a PET bottle can take 200 to 600 years to decompose. When thrown into the sea or rivers, this type of plastic releases toxic substances that contaminate the water.
Translated by AZAHARA MARTÍN ORTEGA
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