A massive amount of plastic trash ends up in our oceans every year. The ocean currents have formed five gigantic, slow moving whirlpools where the plastic collects, nicknamed Vortex.
Recent studies indicate that at least 5 trillion pieces weighing over 250,000 tons are now floating in the world’s oceans. The majority of the plastic debris sinks or remains in the Vortexes, however a significant percentage of it washes onto our coastlines daily.
The German sportswear giant Adidas launched last year three new versions of its UltraBoost shoe made out of plastic found in the ocean. It teamed up with environmental initiative Parley for the Oceans to create the shoe.
UltraBoost are running shoe that delivers constant energy return, made with parley ocean plastic™: upcycled waste from beaches and coastal communities that is intercepted before it reaches the ocean.
At the time, Adidas said it it wanted to create a million pairs of the UltraBoost shoes. It has sold 1 million shoes made out of ocean plastic last year. Each pair of shoes reuses 11 plastic bottles.
Adidas is committed to phasing out the use of virgin plastic in their products. But this is just one part of the work with Parley. As a founding member, adidas supports parley in eco-innovation, research and development, direct impact, education and communication.
Reference-Adidas website, Parley website, CNBC TV