
Every minute of every single day a truck’s-worth of plastic enters the oceans.
London might be one of the most centric parts of the UK but that doesn’t mean it’s exempt from the effects of marine plastic pollution. And living further from the sea also doesn’t mean you can’t take part in adidas and Parley’s Run For The Oceans campaign. On the contrary: being such a green city, the Run For The Oceans campaign is the perfect opportunity to see more of London’s open spaces and beautiful parks.
adidas has been working with Parley for the last three years to raise money for the Parley Ocean School, which aims to directly educate and empower 100,000 youths and their families who are living in coastal areas affected by plastic pollution. But this year, adidas is upping the pace of the challenge in an effort to combat marine plastic pollution once and for all. They’re donating up to $1.5 million towards this problem and you can get involved by downloading the Runtastic app. For every KM you run, adidas will donate $1 to the cause.
Get involved by downloading Runtastic now!
And, really, there’s no excuse not to get involved. Not only is running free (unlike everything else in this beautiful-yet-criminally-expensive city) but you’ll actually be raising money just by going for a jog.
And why do we need to get involved this year? Because if we don’t act now, there’ll be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050. The huge problem with plastic is that it doesn’t disappear like organic matter. Instead of breaking down, plastic breaks up into smaller and smaller pieces. So, almost all the plastic ever created is still with us in some form. Less than 10% of global plastic waste is recycled.
Parley and its global clean-up network collect plastic from the ocean, before cleaning and processing it into a thread that can be used to make shoes, high-performance sportswear and other clothing. Since the first generation of adidas x Parley products hit the market in 2016, they’ve produced over five million pairs of shoes made with marine plastic trash, and they plan to make 11 million more in 2019. That’s more than 1400 metric tons of plastic rubbish that has been prevented from destroying our oceans.
Ready to do your bit?
There are a few different ways to Run For The Oceans. You can run solo, logging your route in the Runtastic app. You can join a running community such as adidas Runners and log your kilometers with a crew or you can run at one of adidas’ live events happening in London – find the full list of events going on here.
This article was sponsored by adidas. Learn more about Run For The Oceans here and download the Runtastic app here.