News > Circular Economy in Footwear
Footwear products are extremely difficult to recycle due to the multiple functions they perform, which require a huge range of materials specifications between and within brands. Whilst progress is being made by many other apparel manufacturers on the circularity of their product, footwear sector is lagging behind and appear to still be stuck in a linear economy. There is no hiding from the fact that as much as 90% of footwear waste, mainly postconsumer unwanted, worn, old shoes are still ending up in the landfill, a situation that for many legislative, societal and environmental pressures cannot continue. At Centre for SMART, we are committed to the vision of ‘zero-waste landfilling’ of footwear products and are looking forward to work with key stakeholders and industry thought leaders to fully implement the concept of circular footwear.
An article summarising the progress in Centre for SMART Footwear Circularity Research was published in World Footwear Magazine, a copy of which can be found here.