Captured CO2 to be recycled into Adidas trainers

Oco, a subsidiary of carbon capture utilisation and storage specialist Carbon Upcycling, has formed a major partnership with Adidas. The sports shoe manufacturer will use an ink-based product embedded with captured CO₂ in a new range of trainers.

Carbon Upcycling is using its patented technology to capture CO₂ at heavy industrial sites such as the cement sector, but its Oco company will engage with public demand for products that use the potential captured carbon. Oco takes the solid powder created from the carbon sequestration process and markets it to brands looking to improve their environmental footprint by incorporating the captured CO₂ into their products.

“This is just a starting point that we selected,” said Oco co-founder Madison Savilow, of the carbon-embedded ink that the company will be providing to Adidas for the production of 400,000 pairs of Terrex running shoes.

According to Ms Savilow, the same carbon-embedded material used to make the ink for Adidas can also be used in plastics, pharmaceuticals, batteries and more — meaning there’s a wide range of opportunities. “We’re starting with inks, but a lot of the work that we’re doing is in polymers or plastics,” she added.