The search for a metal-less shank for our ladies high heel shoes goes on.  One of the major issues in sustainable shoe making is End of Life post consumer waste.  Worldwide shoe consumption has more than doubled every 20 years, from 2.5 billion pairs in 1950 to more than 20 billion pairs in 2005.  Although China has the highest annual shoe consumption in the world at nearly 3 billion pairs,  the USA has the highest per capita annual consumption at 6.9 pairs (in India it is 0.6 pairs).  The massive growth in shoe sales has also resulted in a huge increase in post consumer waste.  In the EU alone it is estimated that waste arising from thrown away shoes is 1.2 million tonnes.  165,000 tonnes of shoes thrown away in the UK alone.  Approximately 90% of this waste ends up in landfills!

Terra Plana are proud to be part of a footwear recycling working group (hopefully about to receive funding from the government) to study other options available for end of use shoes...   At the moment, possibilities include footwear reuse, material recycling and energy recovery based on incineration or gasification. 

One of the big issues with recycling ladies shoes are that most of them have a metal part (called a shank) that maintains the shape of the arch and more metal to attach the heels.  We have  have been working with Jones and Vining to develop a recycled nylon piece to replace the metal shanks in our ladies high heels, so far this search is proving elusive - the maximum heel height achieved so far is 5cm...   So it remains irresponsible to wear really sexy shoes!!

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