Katherine Martinko at Treehugger.com displays a proper concern about liquifying shoes from Adidas:
Source: Adidas
Adidas has invented a running shoe that will decompose in the sink. Once you’ve worn it out (the company recommends two years of use), you can immerse the shoes in water, add a digestion enzyme called proteinase, and let it work for 36 hours. It will cause the protein-based yarn to break down, and you’ll be able to drain the liquefied shoes down the sink – everything except the foam sole, which will still require disposal. …
The Futurecraft Biofabric shoe is a very interesting idea, but I’d want to know more about the safety of the liquid-shoe form after it’s drained down the sink. Does the synthetic fabric actually melt completely, or does it break down into microscopic pieces that are small enough to drain away? What effect does that have in our water supply? Just because something ‘breaks down’, changes form, or disappears from view does not mean it goes away. Nor does facilitating disposal really mean ‘closed-loop production.’
I wonder about the long term stability of the material as well – if a pair were left alone for ten years, does it turn into something else? Is that form innocuous? This has implications not only for the environment, but for museums which may wish to display these shoes in the future. We saw just such a display at the museum we visited in Atlanta – that is, of various basketball shoes.
