The world produces a lot of trash that ends up in the ocean — especially plastic. It’s enough to place five grocery bags full of plastic trash on every foot of every single country’s coastline.
That’s a lot of plastic debris, and Maine is no exception.
Every year, Maine’s Coastal Cleanup event draws more than a thousand volunteers who clear trash from Maine’s coast. In 2014, participants collected 10,484 pounds of trash from 109.5 miles of coastline. Cigarette butts, plastic food wrappers, plastic bottles and plastic bags were the top finds, according to the Ocean Conservancy.
Could that trash be recycled into something useful?
Recently, the organization Parley for the Oceans and shoe brand Adidas partnered on what they called a “world first”: A shoe prototype made entirely of trash. The shoe’s yarns and filaments came from ocean waste and illegal deep-sea fishing nets.
Sea Shepherd, an organization that aims to protect marine life, pulled the nets after a 110-day expedition tracking an illegal poaching vessel.
“Our objective is to boost public awareness and to inspire new collaborations that can contribute to protect and preserve the oceans,” said Cyrill Gutsch, founder of Parley for the Oceans, in a press release.
Adidas said it plans to release more products made from recycled waste material later this year. The shoes aren’t for sale now; they are only a prototype. But there’s plenty of plastic ocean waste — even off Maine’s coast — to make more.
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