PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
The footwear industry is still struggling to identify and implement ecologically sound methods for producing its ware and recycling raw materials. Highly fragmented and composed largely of small and medium-sized enterprises, shoe manufacturers rarely employ environmental specialists, leading to potential oversight of economically viable green solutions. The widespread use of adhesives and solvents in footwear manufacturing and recycling could notably benefit from streamlining into a more resource-efficient industrial process. The manufacturing, transportation, and recycling of materials in footwear production also have great room for improvement toward both cost- and resource-efficiency. Companies based in three EU countries in particular Spain, Italy, and Romania have been identified as primary actors for innovation in this sector, accounting for 73% of all footwear production in the EU.
OBJECTIVES
The REWEART project aimed at improving both proactive and reactive waste management in the production of footwear in the EU, starting with companies based in Spain, Italy, and Romania. The optimisation of resource-selection and the implementation of new technologies in designing footwear would lead to more resource-efficient recycling and waste management. Innovations adopted in the easily-removable soles of shoes manufactured by Vesica Piscis offer one example of innovative materials and design can help make the footwear industry greener, notably reducing its use of water, lowering its greenhouse gas emissions and scaling down the waste that it produces. In addition to improving production and recycling processes, the project aimed to develop transferable methods to spread innovations across the sector. By working toward reusable materials, resource-efficiency and low-carbon manufacturing processes, the project’s objective was to support the EU circular economy package, the Industrial Emissions Directive and the 2020 climate and energy package.
RESULTS
The LIFE REWEART managed to achieve the main project objective: to demonstrate a new shoe production model, based on methods for the optimisation of resources which enable, at the design stage, the selection of the most appropriate materials (including recycled ones) and processes, with the aim of reducing resource consumption and waste generation in the textile and footwear sectors.
The beneficiaries identified available alternatives for each of the components needed for producing the shoes (outsoles, insoles, packaging, threads, upper material) and for the manufacturing methods. As a result of this process, they identified 27 providers and 43 components suitable for the project. In fact, they continue to identify new raw materials, components and techniques for optimising the shoes' production. The involvement of shoe components providers in the eco-design process was one of the project’s strengths. Furthermore, the beneficiaries completed the design of the REWEART shoes manufacturing process. They proposed quite a simple handmade process, using conventional equipment, in order to ease its replication.
The beneficiaries produced the number of shoes planned (1,000 pairs produced by VESICA and 1,000 by MUSTANG; 24 models in total). They also conducted life-cycle analysis of all the shoe models produced by the project. The results were very satisfactory, achieving a significant reduction in the environmental footprint of the production process:
- Reduction of at least 56% of greenhouse gases compared to traditional models
- Reduction of 85% of water consumption
- Reduction of 90% of energy consumption
- Zero waste production
- Use of 35-68% of recycled materials for production of the shoes.
Up to 20 000 pairs will be produced using the project’s approach in the next three years. Five jobs were directly created by the project.
The beneficiaries faced difficulties in reaching policy makers effectively, mainly at national and European level. Nevertheless, they had the opportunity to interact with policy makers at local level. In this sense, the project representatives contributed to circular economy and RIS3 (Estrategia Regional de Investigación e Innovación 2014-2020) discussions at regional policy level and supported the future deployment of a hub for footwear recycling as well as the implementation of extended producer responsibility.
Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report and After-LIFE Communication Plan (see "Read more" section).
