HAND YOU USED EMMA FOOTWEAR BACK TO US!
30 September 2024Materials that stay in the chain forever and can endlessly be reused. Is that a dream or reality?
En route towards a circular safety shoe with the Circular Footwear Alliance
Materials that stay in the chain forever and can endlessly be reused. Is that a dream or reality? In 2024, a great deal of attention is being paid to the topic of circularity and it is also high on the agenda for us here at EMMA. Unfortunately, a circular safety shoe doesn't exist just yet. Not at the moment, anyway. Thanks to the Circular Footwear Alliance, however, you too can take a step in the right direction. As Fabian Groven, the sustainability manager at EMMA, explains.
“In our communications about sustainability, we sometimes talk about circularity and what we are referring to then is a circular economy. In that type of economy, there is no waste. Each material – in our case, the materials in a safety shoe – retains its value as the material is used (and reused) for as long as possible. Unfortunately, a completely circular safety shoe doesn't exist just yet, but we're certainly making some significant steps forwards in terms of circularity, by using recycled materials for example. But that in itself doesn't make our shoes circular. After all, safety shoes are still often thrown away once they have been used, but they don't have to be!”
Tens of thousands of shoes already collected
“EMMA has joined forces with other safety footwear brands. Together, we have created the Circular Footwear Alliance (CFA). The CFA foundation aims to collect in as many safety shoes as possible and rescue them from landfill and we are now becoming increasingly successful at that! Right now, tens of thousands of shoes have already been collected in from more than 380 collection points. Our partner FastFeetGrinded processes the materials from the shoes into new raw materials. For now, those raw materials are being used in new applications. For example, the rubber and PU waste from our soles is granulated and then used to make playground floors.”
More and more shoes are needed
“Ideally, we would like to use the reclaimed raw materials to make new safety shoes, but things haven't progressed that far just yet. For that, we will need to keep experimenting – and will need to collect in even more shoes! At that point, seeking solutions will become more attractive to the production chain as a whole. In that regard, we are glad that by 2026, the suppliers of safety shoes will be required to take responsibility for the waste generated by their shoes. Even after the shoes themselves are no longer in use. Very soon, that will become a requirement under the Extended Producer Responsibility (UPV) legislation. We and our partners in the CFA are not waiting for that though – we're already working on it!”
You can get involved too!
“The organisation is already in place; what we need now are your used safety shoes! So join us as a customer of the CFA. It's really easy: simply sign up and order a collection box. FastFeetGrinded will take the shoes you hand in and turn them into new raw materials, so you too can make your contribution towards a circular future! And who knows, maybe the circular safety shoe is not as far off as you think!"