Wearing recycled plastic on your feet has never been more fashionable. Both Nike and Adidas have developed innovative and sustainable techniques to create footwear from reprocessed plastic, and now a new US startup is selling shoes knitted from cast-off bottles.

The result of three years of research and product development, Rothy’s shoes are carbon-free and totally recycled, and they can be recycled again when no longer needed. The company says it’s proud of making a ‘sophisticated stylish product…with less waste and more responsible materials’.

Rothy’s claims, as well, to be the first to use a three-dimensional seamless knitting process, so that shoes come out of the machine fully formed. The filament fibre from three plastic water bottles turns into a shoe in only six minutes.

Nike uses a similar method to create its Flyknit trainers. Adidas recently also unveiled a new line of running shoes and soccer jerseys almost completely made of plastic found in the ocean – including some from the Maldives’ shores. The material comes from clean-up operations led by Parley for the Oceans, an ocean protection organisation.