DON BOSCO CHURCH VADODARA

Today's generation looks for famous company brand products, especially clothes and footwear. But did you know that some company brand footwear and clothes are made from recycled plastic? In this short film of 3:30 min, we'll see that Adidas a well know company partnered with the environmental organization "Parley for oceans" in 2015 with an aim to save the ocean from plastic pollution, by using plastic bottles in the production of brand-named shoes/sneaker and apparel.

#Adidas makes over 400 million pairs of shoes every year and manufacturing that many shoes require a lot of resources. But constantly creating new materials can harm the environment. So Adidas has turned to a different resource. Experts predict that in 30 years, there will be more plastic in our ocean than fish and a study estimates that 90% of sea birds have consumed some form of plastic waste. Plastic pollution is harmful to both humans and marine life. So Adidas is trying to stop that pollution before it reaches the oceans and they have made huge progress in it. In 2019, Adidas made a production of 11 million pairs of shoes from recycled plastic which was double in production rate in 2018. Adidas says that the partnership has prevented 2,810 tons of plastic from reaching the ocean.

How these shoes are made? Adidas uses plastic which contains polyethylene terephthalate or PETwhich is collected by Parley and its partners from coastal areas. Then these plastic bottles are sent to the processing plant of Adidas giving small plastic flakes which are then converted into small resin pellets. Adidas melts these pellets to create a filament that is spun into a polyester yarn which is used to create the upper parts of shoes and clothing like jerseys. Each item in parley collection is made from 75%intercepted marine trash. Currently, more than 40% of Adidas apparel uses recycled polyester and it aims to replace original polyester with recycled polyester by 2024. The advantage, it gives the same performance and comfort standard of Adidas other brand shoes. Recycled polyester uses less water and fewer chemicals and helps prevent plastic pollution entirely. Whereas its disadvantage, washing polyester clothing can create microfiber which may end up in the ocean. Adidas suggests customers wash their clothes less often, use cold water, and fully fill the machine each time.

Not this project only Adidas is also planning to develop a 100% recyclable shoes called the futurecraft loop. This shoe is made to be remade because it can be returned and broken down to create a brand new pair. It is expected to be released until 2021.