Adidas' zero-waste sporting project combines recycling and creativity

Sportswear company Adidas announced on Thursday a new zero-waste sporting project called Sport Infinity that was started in June 2015. Its aim is a new generation of sporting goods that, thanks to a new inexhaustible 3D super-material, would have the potential to be recycled endlessly and combined into new products, thus preventing products from ever being thrown away.

Instead, disused football boots - even Lionel Messi's old ones - would be broken down into small parts that weigh only a few grams and remoulded again in a waste-free, adhesive-free process, Adidas said in a press release. This would give consumers more scope for personalisation than ever before as they could develop new creations without feeling guilty for wasting their old shoes.

Football shoes don't need to be thrown away any more

Even Messi was impressed: "I am proud that Adidas is working to make sure that all of their boots, including mine, are being made in a way that protects the environment. For me, this is the future of football", said the world player of the year.

"This is a game-changing development for football fans. Over the next three years, Sport Infinity aims to end the days of throwing away football boots. Instead, every pair of boots is not just recycled but reimagined to the consumer's most personal specifications," explained Gerd Manz, vice president technology innovation for Adidas.

The Adidas Group leads the project, which is funded by the European Commission, and brings together a variety of industry and academic experts. Its goal is to develop a production process for sporting goods that combines broken-down sports products with excess materials from other industries.

That means, the football boots of the future could contain everything from carbon used in aircraft manufacturing to the fibres of the boots worn by the player who scored the deciding goal during the World Cup.