Sports brand Adidas has unveiled plans for a fully recyclable running shoe.
The Futurecraft.Loop project is aimed at tackling the problem of plastic waste, where the raw materials can be repurposed again and again into another pair of shoes.
The company has said the shoes are "made to be remade from the outset", by using one material type and no glue.
Each component is made from 100% reusable thermoplastic polyurethane.
Image: ©2019 adidasIt is spun to yarn, knitted, moulded and clean-fused to a midsole.
Once the shoes come to the end of their first life, they can be returned to Adidas.
The 'used' shoes are then washed, ground to pellets and melted into material for components for a new pair of shoes.
The company has added that this is done with "zero waste and nothing thrown away."
Some 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic have been produced since the early 1950s.
While 50% of all plastic ever made was made in the past 13 years - and 91% of all plastic is not recycled.
Tanyaradzwa Sahanga is manager of technology innovation at Adidas.
She said: "We set out to create a new type of product that we can take back, grind up and reapply into new Adidas product.
"We knew this was a far-reaching vision in every way; technically and even behaviourally.
"There were times when it didn’t seem like we could get over some of the technical hurdles.
Image: ©2019 adidas"Now we’ve made the first leap, the playing field has changed. We cannot create a circular future on our own, we are going to need each other.
"We’re excited to see this first step come to life as part of the beta launch."
Adidas hopes to launch the shoe in 2021.
