The project analyzed footwear waste streams through pilot activities involving CETIA, Matoha, Picvisa and The 8 Impact.

According to the report, around 50% of post-consumer footwear collected is classified as non-rewearable, while 46% remains suitable for reuse. The remaining 4% is contaminated, preventing both reuse and recycling. Among the reusable footwear, approximately 90% is exported, mainly to the UAE, China and Pakistan.

One particularly noteworthy finding is that 24% of shoes categorized as non-rewearable showed no visible physical damage. This suggests that current sorting and assessment practices may not always capture the full potential for reuse or recovery.

Footwear complexity remains a major barrier

The report highlights the enormous challenge facing the sector. Around 23.8 billion pairs of shoes are produced globally each year. A typical shoe contains more than 60 different components, including textiles, plastics, rubber compounds, foams and adhesives. This complex multi-material construction makes sorting, disassembly and recycling significantly more difficult than in many apparel applications.

As a result, recent studies estimate that around 90% of footwear still ends up in landfill at the end of its life.

The pilots also revealed technical limitations in current recycling processes. Nearly 38% of non-renewable sole materials could not be identified using near-infrared (NIR) scanning technology, underlining the need for improved material transparency and identification systems.

New sorting technologies tested

As part of the project, dedicated footwear sorting technologies were tested by Matoha, CETIA and Picvisa. According to the project partners, these represent some of the first technologies specifically developed to sort footwear waste streams for circularity applications.

The initiative also demonstrated the technical feasibility of closed-loop recycling for sports shoes and sneakers. Working with footwear collected through the French Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system, The 8 Impact successfully processed footwear waste into recycled material streams, providing further evidence that circular solutions for selected footwear categories are becoming increasingly viable.

Building the foundation for footwear circularity

The Closing the Footwear Loop initiative aims to establish the infrastructure needed for a circular footwear industry. Alongside waste stream mapping and technology validation, the project is developing design-for-circularity guidelines in collaboration with circular.fashion. The objective is to improve recyclability, durability and repairability while supporting the development of scalable end-of-life solutions.

The findings underline both the scale of the challenge and the opportunities emerging as new sorting, disassembly and recycling technologies begin to mature. While footwear remains one of the most difficult product categories to circularize, the project demonstrates that dedicated infrastructure and design improvements could significantly increase reuse and recycling rates in the future.

Download the report:

https://www.fashionforgood.com/case-study/closing-the-footwear-loop/?utm_source=MPL&utm_medium=MPL&utm_campaign=MPL