THIS STORY ORIGINALLY appeared on WIRED en Español and has been translated from Spanish.
Traditionally, the athletics track in an Olympic stadium is red. However, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, it’s purple, to match the event colors chosen by the Paris organizing committee. But there’s another difference: It’s made with recycled shells produced by the fishing industry, as part of the 2024 Olympics’ commitment to sustainability.
Resilient flooring, such as running-track flooring, is made using calcium carbonate, which is usually obtained through mining. Instead, the company that designed the track for the 2024 Summer Olympics, Mondo, teamed up with a fisher’s cooperative to gather shells of bivalve mollusks from the Mediterranean