Peru has presented a sustainable female fashion shoe brand that relies on recycled end-of-life tire rubber. The company is called EstoyEco (“I’m Eco” in English).

Jesselyn Campomanes, CEO and co-founder of EstoyEco commented on the process of shoe making saying that scrap tires are treated during 2 phases – these moves are needed to make soles of the footwear. She noted that normally recyclers deliver scrap tires to the brand’s facility where the end-of-life materials are selected and washed. Tires also undergo process of cutting, shredding and grinding, and then plates of shoe soles are manufactured – for some models they are molded, for some – cut from tire tread.

Video from EstoyEco's Youtube channel.

The biggest amounts of waste are generated during the end-of-life tire cutting. Therefore, to mitigate environmental impact, the company uses 3D weaving machines, which enable to reduce the amount of waste produced.

EstoyEco also works with other sorts of waste to produce not only shoes, but also jeans fabric and plastic bottles from end-of-life materials.

Peru generates every year some 7 million tons of scrap tires, but the country recycles not even 2 percent of that amount, according to the Ministry of Environment of Peru. Tires, if simply left as waste, pose threat to the environment as rubber materials and chemicals that they contain pollute soil in the long term, serve as breeding ground for mosquitoes and, moreover, can cause fires, which are hard to extinguish and release toxic substances into the air.

For more information about EstoyEco’s products and the company’s history, please visit EstoyEco’s website.

Article by Mercado Negro.