Shoe recycling technology developed
Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - 13:22:21
At the moment, about 95 per cent of the shoes which are manufactured annually across the globe, which equates to about 19 billion pairs, are thrown in the bin and end up at landfill sites or in rubbish incinerators, according to Just Style.
However, a new process for recycling shoes has been developed at Loughborough University and it could help to significantly reduce the amount of waste which is generated as a result of our veracious appetite for footwear.
Researchers at the Innovative Manufacturing and Construction Research Centre, believe that they have created a unique system which allows for shoes to be stripped of their reusable and recyclable materials, so that old pairs do not simply get chucked away.
Shoes are incredibly complicated and harness a range of different elements, which, like mobile phones, makes them relatively difficult to recycle. From leather and plastic to foam, rubber and plenty of adhesive, a shoe is an organism unto itself and one which requires a delicate touch when sent for recycling.
Researchers spent a decade working out a way to recycle footwear and now it appears that they have achieved their goal.
Spokesperson, Professor Shahin Rahimifard, said that first the shoes are arranged into categories, with the metal components extracted first. Next, shredding occurs, after which the individual granules of material are easier to separate from one another.
The recovered materials can go on to serve a range of purposes, with rubber getting turned back into soles for new shoes, for example.
People in the UK who still have serviceable footwear which they no longer need can donate this to charity, but the shoes that are well past their prime are still difficult to dispose of in a sustainable manner. Hopefully, this new process will address this issue in the near future.
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