Prevention before recycling before energy recovery before disposal – this is the official waste hierarchy of the European Union. To quantify this figure: Every year 210 million tons of plastic are being produced. Following scientific research, 200 million tons of plastic waste has been disposed of in the Mediterranean Sea: there is no acknowledgement or discussion of prevention, recycling or energy recovery. In fact, the 200 million tons are not truly disposed of, but merely corroded by salt-water and by the impact of radiation from the sun. In the end, the corroded material is consumed by microorganisms, which are the first step in the food-chain. The waste is brought back to mankind, served on our plates!

Modern plastic is mostly a composite of different materials, held together by extremely powerful tacky adhesives. Shoes are good examples: Modern shoes are made up of 30 to 50 different components, glued together inextricably. 500 million pairs of shoes have been sold in Germany, Austria and Switzerland during the last year – most of them are in use for only 6 months: Waste that can only be burned for energy recovery.

How to produce shoes using the most favoured option: the prevention of waste?