In a bid to eliminate plastic waste and end ocean pollution, Adidas has decided to launch new fabrics made from recycled polyester and marine plastic waste. Adidas announced that it is part of the company's commitment to using only recycled polyester in all its products and every application from 2024.
Adidas has been trying its best to eliminate plastic waste and has earlier taken similar steps with its shoes and tasted success. The company's decision to launch fabrics from recycled polyester and marine plastic waste comes amid growing concerns of increasing ocean pollution owing to the plastic menace.
Can Adidas make a difference?
Adidas said that it will use marine plastic waste and recycled polyester to come up with new fabrics and use them to expand its product lines. This is not the first time that Adidas has made such a commitment. The decision follows the company's success with its shoes that it made in collaboration with Parley as part of the Oceans initiative.
The Germany-based shoes, clothing and accessories maker said that it aims to use 50 percent of recycled polyester in its products this year. The company this year will introduce new product categories based on the new fabric's sustainability criteria. Adidas also aims to use only recycled polyester in all its products by 2024. The company had plans of using 46 percent recycled polyesters in its clothing in 2019 compared with 28 percent in its shoes.
Adidas changes gear
Environmentalists have been quite critical of the fashion industry, claiming that it is responsible for almost 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Adidas has been trying to make an effort to eliminate marine plastic waste. In 2015, the company collaborated with Parley to make shoes using plastic collected from sea beaches and other coastal belts. In 2019, the company produced a whopping 11 million shoes using plastic collected from coastal areas and sea beaches.
This year, the company plans to produce 15-20 million pairs of such shoes. However, it's still far from its group total of 400 million shoes. Recycled polyester costs 10 percent more than the virgin material but Adidas said that it will try to get the cost down so that more people can go for sustainable products.
Adidas' biggest rival Nike already uses recycled polyester to make the top half of its Flyknit shoes brand. Naturally, Adidas does not want to lag in this initiative. The company also said that it will start labeling its products made of 100 percent recycled polyester and other sources as Primegreen later this year.
