However that gained’t work for jellies—or any footwear, for that matter.
“If these footwear got here into any [material recycling facility] within the nation, they’d get thrown away,” mentioned Lynn Hoffman, co-president of nonprofit, mission-based recycler Eureka Recycling. “They’re made from PVC, which is without doubt one of the extra poisonous forms of plastic.”
Due to the tough chemical substances used to make PVC, some manufacturers, like Stella McCartney, have minimize the fabric utterly from their product traces. Melissa instructed Adweek that PVC’s detrimental status comes from dangerous components used within the materials within the Nineteen Nineties, however that aren’t current in Melflex.
Designing for circularity
However simply because the footwear aren’t suitable with municipal recycling processes doesn’t imply that recycling jellies is an inconceivable job. Melissa has been amassing used footwear via its in-store take-back program in Brazil since 2019. Final yr, it produced a restricted run of 5,000 Flox sandals made from 100% recycled supplies.
To this point, the model has solely collected about 9,000 pairs from shoppers via the take-back program, which features a community of over 400 drop-off areas. However and not using a increased return charge, it’s not attainable to create an ongoing line of totally recycled footwear.
In some circumstances, the footwear are collected and mechanically processed with companions which can be so removed from the Melissa manufacturing facility that it doesn’t make sense, from a carbon emissions standpoint, to move the recycled uncooked materials again to the manufacturing facility. In that case, the fabric is used regionally to make issues like chairs, rugs or bag handles, in accordance with Carlos Andre Carvalho, sustainability supervisor for Melissa’s guardian firm, Grendene.
To recycle the footwear within the U.S., Melissa is at the moment working to finalize a U.S.-based recycling accomplice, which Carvalho mentioned they anticipate to announce within the coming weeks. As soon as that’s arrange, he mentioned, Melissa will roll out a nationwide take-back program within the U.S. much like what’s obtainable in Brazil.
In comparison with different footwear, Melissa sandals do have some main benefits in terms of recyclability. As a result of they’re all one materials, a mechanical recycling course of, the place the footwear are shredded, melted down after which changed into a brand new feedstock, is rather more easy than your common sneaker. Whereas the vast majority of its footwear are made with petrochemicals, about 25% of the plastic now comes from bio-based sources like vegetable oils.
“[The FTC wants] to know that when you’re selling an environmental profit, that profit is definitely going to be achieved by shoppers,” Greenbaum mentioned. “At this second, it’s completely positive to have a distinct sort of recycling program obtainable, so long as you convey it to shoppers.”
