Creating new kicks from old soles: How a Dutch recycling company is tackling footwear waste – CNN

For runners, footwear is one of the most important – and often most expensive – pieces of gear. Experts say the typical lifespan of a traditional running sneaker falls between 500 to 700 kilometers (310 to 435 miles), or about four to six months, depending on usage. With some shoes costing hundreds of dollars, it can certainly add up.

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Footwear is notoriously hard to recycle because it can contain dozens of different materials that need to be processed separately. But the Pormeses decided to try and find a way to recycle shoes in their entirety.

“Everybody told us, ‘it’s not going to work, it’s impossible,’” Danny Pormes recalls. But after months of experimenting in their kitchen – which involved microwaving and boiling shoes, along with a few disasters – they finally came up with a proof of concept. From there, they partnered with a machine manufacturing company, Heilig Group, which helped bring their shoe recycling factory FastFeetGrinded to life.

The process begins by sorting the footwear. From there the different components that make up a shoe – like rubber, foam and plastic – are separated by machines using heat and friction. Those materials are then shredded into small pieces, before being separated out by type, and then refined into recycled materials ready for reuse.

The foam, rubber and textile granules are then sold to manufacturers to be made back into items such as shoe parts, yoga mats, or flooring for playgrounds and outdoor sports centers.

The factory receives unwanted shoes from store collection boxes across Europe, and defective or unreleased sneakers from shoe companies. Pormes says they accept all types of footwear – from slippers, to hefty construction shoes, to flip flops.

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Read the full article via this link: https://edition.cnn.com/climate/footwear-waste-shoe-recycling-fast-feet-grinded-spc/index.html