Embark on a thought-provoking expedition into sustainability within the fashion industry with our series Sustainability Strides. This week, IMAGES Business of Fashion explores the sustainability initiatives by FastFeetGrinded , unveiling their innovative strides in reshaping the fashion industry.
The idea for FastFeetGrinded originated in 2016 and was masterminded by Danny Pormes and Erna Pormes-Redecker. They were the entrepreneurs behind FastFeet B.V. for 20 years and owners of Runnersworld Hoorn. As a supplier to the Ministry of Defence, they were expected to incorporate recycling into their business process. At that time, however, there was no one available to help with this. Therefore, they decided to develop and implement this unique process themselves. Thus, in 2017, FastFeetGrinded was founded, opening the world’s first unique footwear recycling company.
Sustainability Initiative: Best Foot Forward
Fashion for Good – along with brand partners adidas, Inditex, Target and Zalando has launched a pilot with footwear-recycling innovator FastFeetGrinded to test the process for uptaking recycled content in footwear. Globally, 24 billion shoes are added to the market each year; and a staggering 90% of those are either landfilled or incinerated. Netherlands-based startup FastFeetGrinded’s unique process deconstructs any type of pre-and post-consumer shoe and breaks it down into its macro components, which are then subsequently grinded down into smaller, high-purity granulates for the company to use while creating material streams for repurposed use. The next step involves the company’s extensive network of supply chain partners, which will produce test products such as outsoles, midsoles and flip fops. Fashion for Good and its partners will closely evaluate the products’ quality and purity, aiming to showcase the potential of FastFeetGrinded’s footwear recycling technology and pave the way for scalable solutions.
The First Shoe Recycling Installation
The First Shoe Recycling Installation FastFeetGrinded has developed a unique shoe recycling installation that pulverizes and separates all types of footwear. They treat 3 main sources:
- Simply old shoes which can no longer be worn,
- Unused materials or residues during the production process,
- Sample shoes that have never been worn, but are not for sale purposes.
With their proven technology, they recycle all footwear to the full 100% and deliver the resources back to the market, such as rubber, foam, fluff, textile and leather. The resources are so pure that they have managed to make all the components for a complete circular shoe! They also supply their resources back to create different products such as: playgrounds and outdoor sports fields, retail store designs, furniture and so on. The company reduces waste, CO2 emissions and reduces the production of new resources making it a wholly sustainable initiative. Since its inception in 2017, FastFeetGrinded has recycled 14,04,240 shoes into 100% raw materials with a 23,87,208 kg reduction in carbon emissions.
These include: 71,616 kg rubber 1,34,807 kg EVA 96,893 kg textile/leather 92,680 kg fluff
