No more plastic bags in adidas stores

The company is looking to save 70 million plastic shopping bags worldwide.

German sportswear giant adidas is removing plastic bags from its retail stores around the world, switching instead to paper bags. This is in line with the sustainability strategy the company aims to reach by 2020. According to adidas, this initiative is expected to eliminate the use of some 70 million plastic shopping bags from 14,000 retail stores. It has been estimated that the use of around three million plastic bags will be avoided in the USA, with a further two million bags in Germany.

"Phasing out shopping plastic bags is part of our wider effort to constantly increase the use of more sustainable materials in our production, products and stores, as we recently announced with our newly launched 2020 Sustainability Strategy," commented Roland Auschel, adidas board member responsible for global sales.

The company's 2020 plan is also reportedly targeting a 35 per cent reduction in water usage, both at its own sites and its material suppliers. In addition, adidas has announced its intention to reduce the amount of paper used by company employees, aiming for a 75 per cent drop from 2008 levels. The company also intends to use only sustainable cotton by the end of 2018, as well as reducing the amount of waste products sent to landfill sites by 50 per cent over the next four years. The strategy also calls for a 3 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2020.

Publishing Data

This article was originally published on page 3 of the June 2016 issue of SATRA Bulletin.

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