Recycling project will give Scarpa shoes new life
Specialist ski and outdoor footwear group Scarpa has launched a new recycling project in which it will aim to collect 15,000 used pairs of its Mojito shoes from customers across Europe in one year. It will then deconstruct the Mojitos and use the materials to make new shoes.
Scarpa has said a key component of the project is a technique based on hydrolysis that dissolves leather recovered from the worn shoes.
The footwear company worked with a research team from the University of Bologna to develop this technique. It produces a substance that another project partner, Tuscany-based tannery Sciarada, will be able to use as a filler in its leather manufacturing operations.
Other materials that the project generates will go into footbeds, midsoles, and devulcanized rubber outsoles, toe and heel reinforcements for new footwear.
Scarpa has said the new shoes it is able to make from the recovered materials will have up to 70% recycled materials in their composition.
