After Adidas sold a million shoes made from recycled plastic collected from the world’s oceans in an effort to combat the global plastic pollution crisis, the company vows to only use recycled plastic in all it’s products by 2024. The company, who collaborated with Parley for the Oceans – an environmental group – on this project said this would include polyester as well.
“We aim to use 100% recycled polyester in every product and on every application where a solution exists by 2024,” Maria Culp, Adidas spokeswoman, said in a statement to Huffington Post.
Polyester, which is made from plastic, currently makes up about 50 percent of the material used in the company’s sportswear. It’s sweat-resistant properties make polyester a popular and inexpensive material. But Eric Liedtke, president of Adidas’ global brands, said in a statement that the switch will “save an estimate 40 tons of plastic annually.”
Adidas will start using recycled polyester in its spring and summer 2019 sportswear line in which the products will contain 41 percent of the recycled material.
Aside from using recycled plastic in its products, the company will stop the use of single-use and “newly manufactured plastic” in its offices, retail outlets, warehouses and distribution centers this year, Huffington Post reported. Adidas made the switch from plastic bags to paper ones in all its retail stores in 2016.
The German company, which is the second largest sportswear company in the world, expects their Parley shoes to increase in sales from 1 million in 2017 to 5 million pairs this year as the company hones in on developing products that are more sustainable.
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