Six pilot projects to use recycled tire rubber in footwear production launched in Europe
The French sports retail company Decathlon together with its innovation partners Rubberlink and Tintex, initiated two of these pilot projects, which consist of prototype footwear made from recycled end-of-life tires. The innovators at Rubberlink created a solution of devulcanized tire rubber that allowed Decathlon Portugal to produce a prototype shoe with a 100 per cent recycled rubber sole. According to data from Genan, in comparison with the use of virgin raw materials to produce similar products, for each ton of tire that is recycled, less than 700 kg of carbon emissions are produced.