the problem
SHOE WASTE
In US alone, more than 300 million pairs of shoes are discarded each year. This shoe waste ends up in landfills and could take hundreds of years to breakdown. Globally, billions of shoes are discarded in landfills and in open trash.
Key materials in shoe are outsole/ midsole (~14% - 18% of shoe) and insole (~7% - 10% of shoe), which are traditonally produced from petroleum based polymers like EVA, PU, PET etc. that contribute to environmental polloution and carbon emissions.
Continious use of these new materials like EVA, PU in shoe production allows their demand to be high, and drive the need for their rapid production while exponentially increasing the waste managment and carbon emission problems.
TIRE WASTE
In US alone, more than 274 million waste tires (called as end-of-life-tires) are generated every year . Around 30 million of these end-of-life tires are retreaded to extend the life of tires but they also produce tons of rubber waste in this process.
Around 70% of the end-of-life-tires are re-used but for sub-standard applications like tire-derived-fuel in cement kilns (which can in turn introduce toxic gases in the atmosphere) or ground rubber for playgrounds or sythethic turfs (which requires the use of petroleum based adhesives to form the product) . Around 15% of the end-of-life tires eventually end up in landfills.
Essentially, the real performance attributes of the high quality materials (natural rubber, SBR etc.) used in tire rubber are under-utlized or not-utlized for these traditional recycled applications. This contributes to a massive opportinity cost and an unresolved problem of waste-tire management.
Carbon Emissions
Traditional shoes are made of multiple polymeric/ plastic materials derived from crude oil: PU, Polyester, EVA, TPU etc., which are responsible for producing alarming amounts of carbon dioxide during their production processes.
Sneaker production alone contributes to 1.4% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) productions per Quantis.com. This is signficant given that Airline Industry contributes to 2.4% of the emissions.
A study conducted by MIT, found that the total GHG emissions over the shoes’ life cycle are estimated at 14 ± 2.7 kg CO2‐eq. For comparision, driving an average mid-size car for 25 miles produces approx. 18kg of CO2. Majority of the carbon emissions were found to come from manufacturing processes and materials.
Shoe insole, midsole, & outsole could roughly account for 25% of the shoe. These materials are significant contributors to the carbon emission problems.
Footwear Sustainability and ESG compliance challanges
Per the 2022 footwear industry survey conducted by FDRA (Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America), it is clear that about 65% of the top shoe company responders claimed that they have a person or a team dedicated for sustainability efforts.
Interestingly, more than 80% responders claim that they plan to increase the use of recycled materials in upcoming SKUs.
The need for incorporation of sustainability in shoe production and implementation of recycled materials is quintessential to remain at par with the sustainability benchmark set by the footwear industry & meet the growing consumer demands for sustainable footwear.
However, per the same FDRA survey report, most shoe professionals are having difficulties in acheiving company's sustainability goals. They express the lack of and, hence, the pressing need for cost effective, scalable, and eco-friendly material solutions to meet the marketing claims of sustainable shoes and corporate ESG goals.
Currently, our market survey indicates most shoe companies are having difficulties in finding the right suppliers for sustainable materials (e.g. 50% - 100% recycled contents, high durability, performance & safety specification etc.) so that the brand can "truly" live up to its marketing claims.