Sustainable sneakers: Sports shoes that are quick in the recycling cycle «Kleinezeitung.at

A running shoe holds an average of 800 kilometers.Then you should replace it due to decreasing damping properties and other signs of wear out of consideration for your joints.After the last step, the shoe becomes the elimination product of our consumer society.

Various manufacturers want to save their shoes this bleak end as residual waste, have jumped on the trend of sustainability maximization and pursue different recycling models.

Salomon combines the best of its two product worlds - and turns a dustered running shoe raw material for a ski boot.Development work took three years.The result is a shoe model (index.01), which thanks to a water -based adhesive can simply be broken down into its upper material (recycled polyester) and the sole unit.The insole is already 100 percent recycled material.

The sole unit made of foam (polyurethane) is then grinded into tiny pellets and recycled in the production of ski boots.Roughly calculated: one sole per ski boot.The running shoe upper material is recycled in fabric and yarn production, the insoles are stored for the time being until a recycling solution exists.In order to get the well -performance -oriented running shoe in this circulation, you can send it back to Salomon free of charge as a athlete after adequate use.

Everyone is faced with the same challenge: running shoes are generally difficult to recycle due to the components from which they are traditionally produced.Different synthetic materials, textiles (cotton, wool), foam, rubber and different binders (glue) ensure a difficult to separate and recycle package.As a variant, some rely on recycled plastics.

The sustainability concept at the "Earth Day Pack" collection from ASICS begins in the old clothing can.From there the raw material comes.From five tons of recycling material (corresponds to around 25.000 T-shirts) were just over 100.000 pairs of shoes made, including two of proven running shoe lines (Nimbus, gliderids) and three sneaker models.For this purpose, a technology was used in the insole, which emits 45 percent less CO2 and lowers water consumption by 33 percent.The recycling line is not more expensive than the “relatives” from the conventional collection.

The Swiss running shoe company on has returned to nature when looking for alternatives for the petroleum -based starting materials.And found found at castor beans.Your (competitive) model "Cyclon" consists 50 percent of bio -based components of the beans from India.

But even when it comes to sales you break new ground.In response to the rather manageable return rates for the recycling concepts of the competition, on ON from autumn at the "Cyclon" only a subscription model."You will never have the shoe forever," explains the founder Caspar Coppetti the idea: The shoe is almost only awarded for a fee of just under 30 euros per month.

Once the shoe is "finished", it is returned and gets a new one.The shoe itself should be able to be recycled six to eight times so much.

Adidas has his recycling efforts that started ten years ago for the “Futurecraft model.Loop ”refined.The shoe is now completely made of recycled and prepared material.The plastic waste comes from beaches and coasts, remote islands and from discarded deep sea fishing networks.At the end of the shoe's life cycle, it is returned to Adidas.It is broken down into the smallest components and merged into a material, from which components for new shoes are then created.