Adidas is helping to聽clean聽up the Earth’s oceans by using聽the waste floating around the world to make shoes.聽The sportswear company聽has teamed up with Parley for the Oceans, an environmental group that raises awareness of聽pollution in the ocean, to produce聽pairs of trainers made聽from聽recycled ocean waste.
While only聽 7,000 pairs of the UltraBOOST Uncaged Parley聽will be made initially, the company says it plans to make more.
“We will make one million pairs of shoes using Parley Ocean Plastic in 2017,聽and our ultimate ambition is to eliminate virgin plastic from our supply chain,” Eric Liedtke, an Adidas executive,聽said,聽according to the Verge. Priced at 鈧�200 (拢178), the shoes, which contain 11 plastic bottles,聽will be聽available in Adidas stores and from the company鈥檚 website in mid-November.
The upper part of the shoe聽is made from 5 per cent recycled polyester and 95 per cent waste plastic taken from the waters around the Maldives, while recycled material was also used to make most of the rest of the trainer,聽including the heel, lining, and laces. As well as the Parley trainers, the company is also using recycled ocean waste to聽make聽limited edition football kits for Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.
“Nobody can save the oceans alone. Each of us can play a role in the solution,” Cyrill Gutsch, the founder of Parley for the Oceans, told the Verge.聽 “It鈥檚 in the hands of the creative industries to reinvent faulty materials, products, and business models. The consumer can boost the demand for change.”
Plastic floating in the world’s oceans has become an increasing problem in recent years.
A major report in January said聽oceans would contain more plastic than fish by 2050 unless the world took radical action to stop rubbish leaking into the seas.
At least eight million tonnes of聽plastic already ends up in the ocean every year 聽鈥� the equivalent of a rubbish truck of waste every minute, according to the report from the World Economic Forum.
The rate of聽plastic pollution聽is only expected to increase as more and more plastic is used globally, especially in emerging economies with weaker waste and recycling regimes.
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