Adidas partnered with environmental conservationists Parley for the Oceans back in 2015 for a line of footwear, and the Adidas x Parley line is continuing to grow into 2019. Each one of these shoes contain 12 plastic bottles worth of ocean waste, with some material coming from discarded fishing nets. Adidas says that it plans to make all of its products with recycled plastics recycled from the ocean before 2024. Read more for a video showing the process and additional information.
This year, the company is planning to make 11-million pairs of shoes using recycled ocean plastic, or double what it made in 2018. The partnership with Parley for the Oceans has prevented 2,810 tons of plastic from reaching the open water. Trash is first collected from coastal areas, like the Maldives, before it’s sorted and then sent to an Adidas processing plant. The plastic bottles that contain polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is used by Adidas and everything else is sent to normal recycling facilities.
“With Adidas products made from recycled plastic, we offer our consumers real added value beyond the look, functionality, and quality of the product, because every shoe is a small contribution to the preservation of our oceans. After one million pairs of shoes produced in 2017, five million in 2018, we plan to produce eleven million pairs of shoes containing recycled ocean plastic in 2019,” said Eric Liedtke, Adidas Executive Board Member.
