'Negative environmental impact of footwear is staggering'

27 Jun '20

2 min read

The numbers showing the negative environmental impact of footwear are staggering. Made mostly out of plastic and leather, over 20,000,000,000 pairs of footwear were manufactured in 2019. Most of the materials are made from oil derivatives, according to Hrvoje and Domagoj Boljar, creators of MIRET ecological sneakers made with 97 per cent natural materials.

"The oil derivates like polyester, synthetic rubber (SBR), polyurethane (PU) foams and textiles, EVA outsoles and insoles, PVC

outsoles, TR outsoles and reinforcements, synthetic reinforcements, etc are sources of microplastics that pollute our grounds, seas, air, water, and ultimately end up on our plates," the Croatian brothers write in an article in the hard bound fifth edition of the Sustainability Compendium - ‘Going Circular’ brought out by Fibre2Fashion.

"The second most widely used material is leather and while most people think that leather is natural, it is actually filled (tanned) with toxic chemicals. The most common of these used in tanning of 85 per cent of the world’s leather is a heavy metal called chromium which is the fourth most toxic pollutant in the world," the brothers write, while recounting the realisation that led them to develop ecological sneakers, in their article 'Treading by nature'.

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Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RKS)