Pale, porous and 3D-printed: inside the weird and wonderful quest to make compostable shoes

News Snapshot:

The shoes may not immediately strike you as the future of mainstream fashion. Pale and porous, they resemble a cross between a beige Croc and the long-net stinkhorn fungus found on forest floors. Their creators, however, hope this will be the next huge breakthrough in sustainable footwear: the world’s first 3D printed, made-to-measure, compostable shoe, which can be broken down at the end of its life, in an attempt to stem the flow of millions of shoes into landfill each year. Fashion is among the world’s top polluting industries. It is responsible for about 10% of global carbon emissions and...