Adidas clarifies recycled materials claim
In the latest issue of WSA, we reported that Adidas brand director Eric Liedtke had said the company will concentrate on polyester recycled from ocean waste.
“Not only will we be taking 260 million t-shirts out of the oceans, we would not be creating 260 million t-shirts worth of new polyester every year,” he said.
The claim was made at a United Nations-hosted meeting to discuss cleaning the oceans, during which adidas launched a shoe made with recycled polyester yarns made in collaboration with campaign group Parley for the Oceans and Pharrell Williams-backed Bionic Yarn.
We asked the German group for clarification on whether the capabilities exist to make 260 million t-shirts per year with recycled ocean waste, and it has responded in a statement: “We are actively working with Parley and Bionic Yarn to expand their yarn supply chain to include filament yarn and to incorporate yarn production in different regions. Parley’s expertise is in bringing recycling capabilities to sensitive areas that do not currently have them; at adidas we work to combine this with our expertise in apparel and footwear manufacturing to create materials at the scale necessary to support our business and sustainability goals.
“We are helping Parley grow its capabilities, and this forms part of our overall efforts to identify ways to move into an even more sustainable future with our supply chain. In general, our goal for the materials we use is to increasingly move towards recycled/more sustainable materials such as recycled polyester, recycled nylon, Better Cotton, etc. For instance, we will utilise recycled polyester sourced from Parley’s sites, as well as recycled material from the general market as well.”
On its website, Adidas outlines its recycled materials strategy. During 2014, the group used around 11 million yards of recycled polyester, equivalent to 7 million t-shirts. As of summer 2015, more than 30% of swimwear includes recycled nylon, and it plans to increase the proportion.
A new heel counter, called Framaprene ECO, contains more than 50% recycled content made of old food packaging. Its supplier produces 110 million pairs of heel counters a year for the group, which means that each year they divert 1,500 tonnes of polystyrene waste from landfill sites.
Its suppliers that make injected plastic plates for football boots are recycling 99% of waste back into production and have increased the percentage of rubber and EVA that can be reground and reused in shoes.
See WSA September October for more. (Or download the pdf from the technical library).
Picture: Adidas headquarters. Credit: Adidas
