Meet the Garbage Shoe

Will your next outfit come from the trash? Meet the shoe that's made from garbage.

Ever spend a glorious day at the beach or take that perfect sunset cruise only to have the experience marred by a flotilla of trash that has been carelessly discarded by some careless human?

One manufacturer is finding a creative solution: Adidas has created sustainable shoes that are made out of a combination of plastic found in the ocean, recycled polyester and fishing nets. Just a prototype for now, the shoes illustrate some of the ingenuity around finding uses for all the man-made waste clogging up our oceans, according to an article that appeared on IFL Science.

Created through a collaboration between the sneaker giant and Parley for the Oceans, an organization dedicated to the fight against ocean plastic pollution, the new sneaker features a midsole fashioned from a 3D printer.

Parley for the Oceans hopes to use high-profile projects, such as the Adidas shoe, to draw attention to the detrimental effect plastic trash is having on our marine environments.

In fact, ocean plastic has become a huge problem. Since the material isn’t biodegradable, once it’s carelessly tossed, it can remain in ocean waters for decades. The article says that plastic bags can take up to 20 years to decompose while a plastic soda bottle takes an astonishing 450 years to disappear. Marine life routinely gets tangled in the plastic mess, or worse, consumes it and passes it on to other wildlife, threatening the delicate balance of the marine ecosystem.