In last week's blog post we talked about how plastic has revolutionised the sports industry, including footwear for athletes. Technology today has been able to create innovative footwear which offers support and strength that athletes need. Although new plastic has been produced to create the latest footwear for sportsmen, three London students have created shoes entirely made from plastic waste. The multi-coloured footwear is part of a project called 'Everything you buy is rubbish' and have used waste found on UK shores such as the Thames to make the trainers.
The purpose of the innovative footwear was to raise awareness of how plastic is having a negative effect on our environment. Charles Duffy, William Gubbins and Billy Turvey, devised the idea together to highlight our waste culture.
'Whether dumped in a landfill or washed up on the shoreline, everything that you buy will inevitably end up as rubbish.' They write.
'With the development of plastic came a utopian promise – that this revolutionary material would change our lives. It has now become so materially ingrained in our lives and environment that it's becoming increasingly indistinguishable and inseparable from nature. We made these shoes completely out of rubbish we trawled from UK shorelines as a satirical communication tool to convey the direct correlation between waste and consumerism, and the disposability of contemporary products.'
The team says the humble show is a prime example of the 'out of sight and out of mind' legacy of the modern consumer. They say shows were once hand crafted items that were not only durable but repairable, but now people discard them as soon as they become slightly damaged. As shoes are now so mass produced it is becoming common to throw them away regularly and get a new pair, rather than getting an existing pair fixed.
The team go on to say: 'We reflect an image of ourselves through our clothing. The first of our clothing to show signs of damage is footwear – in the eyes of the consumer, a superficial blemish or a shift in the latest trend is all that's needed to warrant a new purchase. For the majority of its life it is rubbish. Whether in a landfill or washed up on a shoreline, the synthetics within the shoes – in addition to the plethora of plastic we discard – will take centuries to break down.'
For more information about the
'Everything you buy is Rubbish' project, watch the video below.
At Coda Plastics we are very proactive when it comes to being environmentally friendly, by recycling any leftover plastic we produce. We also purchase a lot of reprocessed waste from other companies in order to produce new products. On top of this we also have a number of plastics which users can dispose of in domestic or industrial compost processes; degrading without a trace within 6-12 months.
If you would like to find out more about our plastic manufacturing services, please feel free to contact us on 01603 501020.
