Finding Sustainability in New Places: How to Manage Shoe Waste
By: Ben Baisinger-Rosen
Shoe companies are an increasingly massive part of the American clothing market. Shoes have transformed from utilitarian products to stylistic collectors items akin to high fashion clothing. As sneaker culture has become an increasingly crucial part of the American cultural lexicon, consumption has increased commensurately. By 2028, the American shoe industry is expected to produce nearly 2 billion pairs annually, and the average person is expected to own more than five pairs of shoes. This introduces a crucial question: if everyone is buying shoes more frequently, what happens when people get rid of older shoes?
Indeed, the cultural significance of shoes comes with the downside of negative environmental impacts. As demand and consumption of shoes increases, higher levels of waste and manufacturing follow. Every year, Americans throw out 300 million pairs of shoes, each of which can take as much as 40 years to decompose. This level of waste has real consequences, as one pair of sneakers resting in a landfill produces about 30 pounds of CO2 emissions over the lifetime of decomposition. This is a tremendous amount of cumulative emissions, and this cost demands that we explore the costs of our shoe consumption. A complicating factor is that despite living in an environment where we are increasingly re-evaluating how our consumption affects the environment, shoes are not an area that is generally thought of as an opportunity to act more sustainably, especially relative to other goods like clothing or food. As such, the problem of shoe waste is set to increase because of the dramatic growth in shoe consumption.
It is worth noting that this absolutely does not mean we need to stop buying shoes altogether or even that we need to entirely eradicate shoe culture. Rather, as with any industry with significant potential environmental consequences, it means we need to think carefully about the consequences of our actions and how we can alter our consumption patterns. There are a number of potential solutions that can achieve this. One option is consuming shoes made of sustainable materials. Mainstream brands like Nike have developed initiatives with shoes made entirely out of recycled materials, often from shoes that people have donated to specialized donation bins. If enough consumers purchase these shoes, it signals to corporations that these are a viable source of profit, which in turn provides them an economic incentive to act more sustainably. Moreover, as more people consume shoes with recycled materials, companies have a greater incentive to innovate in their production, which could create lower prices and give the average consumer greater access to sustainably produced goods.
Another measure is donating unwanted shoes to organizations specifically designed to recycle them. A number of organizations have developed methods of recycling shoes so that they do not rot in landfills, releasing tons of CO2. For example, the organization GotSneakers mails recycling kits to people and has saved more than 200 million pairs of shoes from landfills. Finally, sustainability organizations like SWAP can also play a valuable role. SWAP’s storefront accepts donations of shoes, which simultaneously allows students to access shoes while also preventing waste. Similarly, organizations like Share Your Soles accept shoe donations and ship them to needy populations around the world.
As a whole, if we start thinking critically about the consequences of our consumption, a variety of tangible benefits can occur. Rising global emissions and overconsumption necessitates that we evaluate every aspect of our consumption patterns, even when goods like shoes may seem separate from those concerns. Exploring ways to consume shoes more sustainably is emblematic of the wide-ranging benefits that sustainable behavior provides.