As a manufacturing company, we are aware of the amount of waste generated during the production of our shoes - in 2023, this amounted to 722.11 tonnes. We avoid waste in particular by following three principles:
1. we only buy the material we actually need in order to avoid unnecessary material waste.
2. we invest in technologically advanced cutting machines that do not produce unnecessary waste.
3. we find ways to recycle production waste that cannot be avoided as far as possible.
An example of the latter process is the handling of leather remnants. Cutting the leather parts for the shoes produces scraps that were previously disposed of as waste. Since 2016, these leather scraps have been shredded, cleaned and used as a carrier substance for fertilisers in cooperation with the organisation ILSA.
For seventy years, ILSA has been supporting so many farms around the world to improve their yields. In 2023, we were able to process a total of 155 tonnes of leather waste into fertiliser carrier material in collaboration with ILSA and our subsidiary in Brazil, thereby saving new material.
MPU® CUTTER GRANULATED
MPU®-RESTS FOR
RECYCLING
At our main site in Dortmund, we recycle PU waste from our own production by granulating it and adding it to the midsole material of our Recycling Safety Shoes. This enabled us to separate out 34.42% of the production waste and make it available for recycling.