The India leg of Run For The Oceans (RFTO) campaign will be launched at Versova beach on June 8. Like last year, German sportswear major Adidas has teamed up with Afroz Shah, the man behind the Versova beach clean-up drive, to organise the campaign.
The initiative, which will be conducted simultaneously across over 60 cities till June 16, aims to generate awareness of marine plastic. In India, the campaign will touch Chennai, Goa, Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. Sharad Singla, brand director, Adidas India, said, “Running events will be held in Chennai and Goa on June 8. There are massive running communities in both locations and we want to reach out to more runners and talk about this issue.”
In 2018, 7,500 runners clocked 1,22,000 km in India. Mr. Singla said, “This year, we are aiming to have 12,000 runners. Since Versova beach is more or less clean, this year we will be teaming up with Mr. Shah to carry out a clean-up at Dana Pani beach in Malad.”
For every kilometre run by participants, Adidas will contribute $1 to Parley Ocean School (capped at $1.5 million) to educate youth on the threat of plastic pollution and inspire them to take action to create a better future for the planet.
RFTO is part of Adidas’s larger global programme to use upcycled plastic in their shoes and garments. It has set an ambitious target of eliminating the use of virgin plastic in its products.
In 2018, the brand produced more than five million pairs of running shoes, which contained 95% post-consumer recycled plastic sourced from ocean and beach clean-ups. Adidas works with partners to collect and sort the recovered trash, mainly PET bottles, and transport it to an Adidas supplier who then produces the yarn. In India, the company has teamed up with Polygenta Technologies Ltd, a plastic processing plant in Nashik, which manufactures yarn out of used PET bottles.
