A decision-making model for waste management in the footwear industry

Abstract

The footwear industry, over the last years, has placed significant effort in improving energy and material efficiency, but in comparison little effort has been directed at the recovery and recycling of shoes at the end of their functional life. In reality, most worn and discarded (end-of-life) shoes are disposed of in landfills. Producer responsibility issues and forthcoming legislation as well as increasing environmental consumer demands are expected to challenge the way the global footwear industry deals with its end-of-life waste. This paper presents an investigation into the steps required to consider the end-of-life implication of shoes and promote post-consumer recycling practices in the footwear industry. The paper describes the design and specification of a decision-making model to identify the most appropriate reuse, recovery and recycling option for postconsumer shoes. Such a tool in addition to supporting design and material selection processes could also provide benchmark information for the selection of a best end-of-life practice for a selected range of shoe types. The paper concludes by providing a case study for shoe waste management to demonstrate the practicality of this decision-making model.

Greener supplier selection: state of the art and some empirical evidence

“…This sort of gap between the wide variety of approaches proposed by the academic literature and their lack of penetration in the real corporate world confirms the results highlighted by several previous studies (Weber et al 1991, de Boer andvan der Wegen 2003). Moreover, while process-related measures are simpler to be monitored (as highlighted in the empirical analysis, waste creation) product-related measures are more difficult to be assessed, as they also depend on final customer behavioural issues, and the use of product throughout its entire lifecycle (as also highlighted by Staikos and Rahimifard 2007).…”

Manufacturing‐Focused Emissions Reductions in Footwear Production

“…Companies have also looked into the footprint of 4 Specific energy consumption values for hydraulic, hybrid and all-electric injection molding machines are 19.0, 13.2 and 12.6 MJ/kg, respectively 5 Energy difference between virgin and recycled aluminum leather shoes reporting greater than 90% of the burden arising from materials production, particularly from cattle or pig processing (Barling, 2008). Finally, Woolridge et al (2006) and Staikos et al (2007) explored alternative end-of-life treatments for textiles and footwear.…”

Preparation and Characterization of Footwear Soling Materials Based on Biodegradable Polyurethane

“…Rubber and plastic footwear's share of world exports increased from 43% to 54% [1] . World footwear production has crossed 21 billion pairs in 2011, of which leather (8%), polyvinyl chloride (20%), rubber (40%), thermoplastic rubber (14%), ethylenevinyl acetate (9%), and polyurethane (PU) (8%) are being used as soling materials [2] . PU is the most expensive material comparing to other shoe soling materials.…”