Shoes made with recycled materials... really?!

Yes, I care that my shoes are recycled or biodegradable.

It's part of this thing I call "being a decent human being" where I consider how my actions might impact the world and then choose actions which have good or at least less-bad outcomes.

To the OP, there is no reason that you can’t have all of the qualities you desire plus those that are sustainable. You incorrectly assumed it is a zero sum situation. The virtue signaling comment is funny….it appears you are the one with some type of agenda, that being to assume free credentials represent a compromise/sacrifice.

All else being equal, or close to it, yes I would like my shoes to be recycled/degradable/etc.

fisky wrote:

Does anyone here really care whether their shoes are recycled or biodegradable?

Why does this have you so riled up? All else being equal, what exactly is the downside?

My work shoes are made from recycled materials AND washable 🥰

dndjdhdhnd wrote:

To the OP, there is no reason that you can’t have all of the qualities you desire plus those that are sustainable. You incorrectly assumed it is a zero sum situation. The virtue signaling comment is funny….it appears you are the one with some type of agenda, that being to assume free credentials represent a compromise/sacrifice.

All else being equal, or close to it, yes I would like my shoes to be recycled/degradable/etc.

I'm the OP. You make a good point.

I wanted to see how heavy the shoe was. Whether it was responsive. Whether it was good in wet conditions. It just struck me as odd that the very first thing I read was about how great the shoe would be when I eventually threw it away!

It's not a zero sum game, as you pointed out. I was just tired from my morning run and browsing running shoe ads and this one really hit me the wrong way.

dndjdhdhnd wrote:

To the OP, there is no reason that you can’t have all of the qualities you desire plus those that are sustainable. You incorrectly assumed it is a zero sum situation. The virtue signaling comment is funny….it appears you are the one with some type of agenda, that being to assume free credentials represent a compromise/sacrifice.

All else being equal, or close to it, yes I would like my shoes to be recycled/degradable/etc.

Well, there is the issue of cost. Presumably the cost of using recycled materials is higher than otherwise and so it would cost me incrementally more.

fisky wrote:

I followed a shoe ad and found an entire page touting that the shoes were made of recycled materials and made to biodegrade faster than normal running shoes.

Does anyone here really care whether their shoes are recycled or biodegradable?

It's not as ridiculous as that kerfuffle over plastic straws a couple of years ago, but it seems like virtue signaling to me. I want my shoes to prevent injuries, be comfortable, and make me as fast as possible. Being biodegradable wouldn't make my top 50 criteria for shoes.

The big problem is, it is very hard to put a number on the environmental cost of recycling a material (which can be higher than a non-recycled material) which ultimately is the most important thing.

Recycling isn't exactly a low carbon-footprint endeavor. Of course many brands that sell these types of shoes don't really care to investigate this or even know the numbers because they know they can get you on the emotional level (it uses recycled stuff, yay - look at what a good person I am!) vs the rational level (this is great but what might the actual cost be of this recycled material?).

Take a brand for example that claims to recycle ocean plastic and use it in their shoes. Sounds great and noble right? But think about what it takes to get that plastic, process it and integrate it. The boat that goes out and gets the plastic. The plant that processes it. The water they use to clean it - and only then does it enter the same processing chain as a "regular" material. When you also factor in that the end material is only 4-5% recycled content, in essence the shoe has combined and doubled the processing (recycled and regular) footprint of the material.

What you need to keep in mind is that you should care more where you shoe ends up rather than where it came from. In the case of our ocean plastic brand, what good is it to fish plastic out of the ocean, put it in a shoe and then when the sale is made dust off your hands and say "cool our job is done"? (this happens in the vast majority of products that are made irrespective of recycled material content or not). If that shoe ends up in a landfill then what has really happened here? A shoe company has made an extra $20 selling you the "recycled" dream but nothing more.

And don't forget this - just because a shoe came is made from recycled material doesn't mean it can be further recycled. Same way a clean yogurt pot can be recycled but not a dirty one - the moment that your shoe takes on and absorbs dirt and cr@p from the environment, beyond a superficial level (read: able to be wiped off) it simply can not be recycled. Any contaminant renders it impossible. Go take a look a shoe you have worn for an extended period of time and ask yourself if that can really be recycled again. So how can you help the environment? Buy less. Whatever you buy has come a cost and honestly, a "recycled content" shoe has probably come at a higher carbon-footprint cost to the environment.

Final thought - the "natural"/"grown" upper craze (mushroom leather etc) - don't be fooled. The energy cost of growing this stuff is astronomical (water, light etc). Furthermore understand what part of the material is actually grown because not all of it is. The top coating that is the perfect white (or any) color and keeps out water etc is the same polyurethane coating that garbage synthetic leathers have and the grown part simply replaces the non-woven part (the backside) that a regular material has.

Hate to burst your bubbles on your recycled/natural shoes but wouldn't you rather know the facts vs the shoe company narrative?

So, angry bro, the fact that some of the shoe has been recycled means we are fooling our selves because it can't be recycled again? lol. Isn't once better than zero?

There are literally ppl picking up plastic from going into the oceans and resusing them for shoes but this is bad according to you - we should have that left for the ocean AND additional shoes for the fish.

I care, this is a selling point for me. I hate having no options for my shoes that I can wear out in 2-3 months. Seems like such a waste of materials.

It's called a life cycle analysis. You can estimate the amount of raw materials and energy used for a product from cradle to grave.

Every product should be manufactured with consideration for the end of life of the product. Take a walk down an unmaintained beach in the caribbean and the piles of trash that are blown in from the Sargasso Sea will make your stomach churn. Purchasing products made of recycled materials creates a place for all of those recycled materials to go. There is a market for #1 and #2 plastics. There is not a market for most others (and they end up in ladfills or in waterways as a result). If you don't like finding a bunch of plastic trash in your local lake, on the beach or on the street, you should try to buy products made from recycled materials.

I recently discovered that there is a huge selection of clothes made from recycled garbage! Things made of recycled materials have long been popular. Today many brands produce clothing from recycled materials. Waste recycling is very important and in demand. I have been using the services for a long time https://www.zerowastegroup.co.uk which they provide at a high level. They just take trash from my house and and do all remaining job.

The problem with recycled plastic products is it kind of enables big plastic to keep filling the planet with plastic. The real goal should be to leave plastic dependency, not think of ways to re use it.

Didn’t Brooks do this with the Green Silence back ten years ago?

Great suggestion, those would be buttery soft!

"I was just tired from my morning run and browsing running shoe ads and this one really hit me the wrong way."

I would suggest you don't make any important decisions after a run if you're so tired that you react like this.

I'd rather my shoes are recyclable. Thinking about how many shoes are in the world, it seems a massive waste if they just sit there, unable to degrade, causing pollution or an eyesore and waste of space. Logically it just seems much better that they're biodegradable, BUT I would have concerns about whether they would break down prematurely. I have shoes that are five plus years old... actually I have some shoes that are probably 10 years old. I've also put shoes through a washing machine cycle. So they'd have to be robust enough not to break down there. I think my Allbirds shoes may be biodegradable as they're made of wool, although I'm not sure about the sole.

If I have a pair of shoes that aren't wrecked I go to an area near here and leave them on a wall there. They go in about 15 mins. I'd rather this than those skip things that then ship the shoes halfway across the world to give to someone. There are people in need near here and it makes more sense that they get some use out of them rather than the shoes going in the bin.