From clothing manufacturers to the food and beverage industry, these companies often come under fire from the public on the environmental issue front.

However, popular sportswear company Adidas is not one of those companies.

Turning plastic into sportswear

Business Insider reported that the German sports brand has been turning marine pollution into sportswear since 2015.

Last year, Adidas reportedly made 11 million pairs of shoes with recycled ocean plastic.

That’s double the figure the brand made in 2018.

Adidas’ partnership with environmental organisation Parley for the Oceans has reportedly prevented 2,810 tons of plastic from reaching the oceans.

The report explained that the process of making the shoes start from collecting trash form coastal areas, sorting it and sending it to Adidas’s processing plant.

The processing plant crushes, washes, and dehydrates the waste, leaving nothing but small plastic flakes. The flakes are then heated, dried, cooled and cut into small resin pellets.

The pellets are then melted to create a filament, which is spun into a form of polyester yarn they call Ocean Plastic.

According to Adidas, this Ocean Plastic is what forms at least 75 per cent of their shoes and jerseys, and although it's made from recycled plastic, these garments offer the same performance and comfort like their regular sportswear.

While Adidas is not using recycled plastic to make all their sportswear just yet, their goal is to replace all virgin polyester with recycled polyester by 2024.