Did you know that 34 billion shoes are manufactured each year? And out of that 34 billion, 300 million are discarded each year with only about 5% being recycled. If you’re as concerned about the environment as we are, you’d know that the manufacturing, transportation and energy used to produce shoes is responsible for producing 1.4% of all greenhouse gas emissions. That’s a lot of carbon in our atmosphere.
A study by Massachusetts Institute of Technology revealed that 30 pounds of carbon dioxide is emitted per pair of running shoes manufactured and the energy required to produce said shoes through energy intensive processes – molding, foaming, heating, binding – could keep a 100-Watt light bulb lit for a week. Just think the shoes in your closet right now could power up a light bulb for one week if you ran out of power.
If only 5% of shoes are recycled, that means 95% end up in a landfill somewhere, contaminating the local environment by leaching chemicals, dyes and metals whilst the synthetic rubbers and plastics that they’re built from take hundreds if not thousands of years to decompose.
Now, let us take a look at the water footprint of a pair of shoes. Not all have the same water footprint – but most are upwards of 2000 gallons of water. A pair of sneakers, because they’re mostly made from cotton use 2250 gallons of water, one pair leather shoes 2113 gallons of water, to make a pound of synthetic rubber, used for shoe soles, 55 gallons of water are needed. The average pair of shoes needs 2257 gallons of water to be manufactured.
What can we personally do to reduce our water and carbon footprint?
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Recycle our shoes and those of our families and friends for a worthy cause
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Host your own shoe drive fundraiser
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Donate to a neighborhood shoe drive fundraiser
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Always donate shoes in pairs
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Don’t wear down the soles, then donate, remember someone else will get to wear them
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Keep shoes out of the landfill
