Ecological clothing: biodegradable shoes with a use-by date

The innovation of the day is a new concept of more ecological clothing.

These are shoes with a use-by date such as fresh produce.

Sneakers that will, for example, biodegrade automatically after six months.

Or mules that you can only wear for a year.

Afterwards they will decompose on their own.

It is a bit of a sustainable version of "Fast Fashion", the collections which are linked together at such a rate that the clothes become disposable.

At least by making shoes with an expiration date, you can be sure that they will not accumulate in the closet anymore.

Or worse, end up in a landfill.

But how do you manage to make a shoe that only lasts six months?

Where today we use glue, nylon, plastic or gum (products that take decades to decompose in nature).

We will instead rely on biodegradable and compostable materials.

We will also play on vegetable glues whose degradation we can calibrate, so that they lose their effectiveness after six months, a year or more.

Suddenly, at the end of the period, the shoe will go to shreds.

We won't be able to wear it anymore.

On the other hand, we can easily dismantle it and recover its various components for recycling.

A concept pushed by Laura Muth, a designer from Hawk University in Germany.

Are there models that can already be purchased?

Not yet.

For now, she has simply created a prototype sandal that only lasts one season, that is, between three and four months.

The concept could be extended to disposable slippers offered in hotels or beauty salons.

Today they are made of plastic.

Tomorrow, instead of throwing them away, we could either recycle them or directly compost them in a flower box.