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Choosing a shoe made from recycled materials allows for not only the conservation of virgin materials, but also the reuse of materials like plastic bottles and rubber tires.

Find it! Shoes made of recycled materials

In recycled shoes, the sky's the limit! Look for anything from old tires to recycled leather to once-used parachutes to PET in shoes of all shapes and styles.

Choosing shoes made from recycled materials helps you go green because...

• Using recycled materials in shoes creates a new shoe with existing materials rather than using virgin materials or synthetic ones that release toxic substances into the environment.

Shoes made with recycled materials such as rubber, leather, or PET, save virgin materials from being produced and prevent many of these environmental problems associated with brand new shoe manufacturing.

Recycled rubber

Shredding rubber for use in recycled sneakers reduces production costs and toxic waste. The initial stages of rubber processing produce effluent (wastewater discharged from the factory) at a volume of 25 to 40 times greater than the volume of rubber that is produced. This effluent contains either lead or zinc oxide and is deadly when released into water ecosystems, particularly those near plants where rubber is vulcanized. The process of shredding the tires also helps remove other substances from the rubber, such as steel and fibers.

Reusing soda bottles

Plastic soda bottles are not biodegradable. When they end up as trash in landfills, they stay there for up to 700 years before beginning to decompose.[1] Recycling plastic bottles reduces the amount of trash clogging landfills, and limits the environmental exposure to chemical contaminants from products like soap, hair dye, and cleaning products that can seep into the soil and contaminate ecosystems. Recycling plastics also saves energy. One recycled plastic bottle conserves enough energy to power a light bulb for up to three hours.[2]

Thanks to an impressive amount of companies integrating recycled materials into a wide variety of products, consumers no longer have to struggle too hard in making buying recycled a "PET project". From made-in-Canada tote bags to an Ohio-based purveyor of promotional products, companies are making good green use out of used soda containers, specifically PET bottles. In addition to making it easier for consumers to buy recycled by default, they're preventing the 2 million plastic containers used every minute from entering landfills.[3] In total, 73 percent of soda sold in 1999 was in 2-ounce aluminum cans, 27 percent in plastic bottles of various sizes, and less than 1 percent in glass bottles.[3]

Avoiding leather

Perhaps not-so-natural, leather used in any application—shoes included—has many eco-drawbacks. Although desired by many, leather—the byproduct of animal skins—is ecologically harmful. For one, raising livestock for meat and leather production requires a great deal of feed, land, water, and fossil fuels. Factory farms generate 130 times the amount of excrement as the entire human population and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has noted that livestock pollution is the most damaging threat to American waterways.[4]

But beyond livestock rearing, the process used to tan leather has long been noxious and polluting. Toxins from tanneries includes mineral salts, such as aluminum, iron, and zirconium, as well as formaldehyde and coal-tar derivatives. Certain oils and dyes used in the tanning process are cyanide-based. Similar to the rest of the world, more than 95 percent of American-made leather is chrome-tanned. The production of chrome-tanned leather contributes waste to the environment, including chromium, which is classified as a hazardous material by the EPA.[5] Chromium released from tanneries can contaminate drinking water and is dangerous to ecosystems as well as humans.[6] Tanneries also produce other pollutants, including protein, salt, hair, lime sludge, sulfides, and acids.[5]

Limiting PVC

Some new sneakers are made from synthetic materials contain PVC (polyvinyl chloride), a hazardous plastic. Dioxins are released both when PVC is manufactured, as well as when it is incinerated. Industrial plants that produce the chemicals used to make PVC also continue to be a source of dioxins.[7] Substituting recycled materials reduces the amount of synthetic materials created for new sneakers.

Glossary

• dioxins: Chemicals that are produced in industrial processes, most often combustion. They contain chlorine that can harm humans, usually when ingested through food grown in soil where dioxins have accumulated.
• PET: An acronym for polyethylene terephthalate. This plastic polymer, part of the polyester family, is mainly derived from petroleum and used by the chemical industry for bottles, textiles, and industrial moldings. Has a resin code of #1 for plastics recycling. Recycled PET can be used to create many new items, including shoe insoles.

External links

• National Recycling Coalition (NRC)
• The Green Guide: On shoes