Designers and brands need to wean themselves off the plastic "drug", according to Parley for the Oceans founder Cyrill Gutsch, who is releasing his organisation's shoes made from recycled ocean plastic with Adidas today (+ interview).
The Adidas x Parley shoes, designed by Alexander Taylor, were created using recycled plastic dredged from the oceans to raise awareness of the growing environmental issue.
"Our strategy to end plastic pollution is to recognise the problem and really accept that plastic is a design failure," said Gutsch, a former designer.
Gutsch said that designers needed to completely avoid using "virgin" plastic to help tackle the wider problem of plastic pollution.
"We are drug addicts, and you can't go clean and sober from heroin overnight," he said. "Recycled plastic is the substitute drug." Parley founder Cyril Gutsch spoke to Dezeen about his collaboration with Adidas, and his wider mission to rid the world of plastic
The German-born New Yorker learnt about the threat that ocean plastic poses to sea life from environmentalist Paul Watson in 2012.
Gutsch converted his agency from a design company to an environmental organisation "pretty much overnight". Now his Parley for the Oceans initiative aims to encourage other creatives to repurpose ocean waste, and come up with alternatives to plastic.
"We need to reinvent plastic," Gutsch told Dezeen at Parley's offices in New York. "...