Climate Action Processes

When it comes to shoes, the world is manufacturing over 20 billion pairs yearly and in the process contributing to about 1.4% global carbon emissions. Pitting this against the world’s population, each of us is expected to buy two and a half new pairs each year, such that in four years, one should be keeping 10 pairs in the house on average, and that is if only they are four years old. In ten years, each of us has a pair for each day of the month! What happens to the hundreds of undesired pairs stashed in homes? Is there a proper disposal mechanism for the shoes or do we dump them in landfills here in Kenya? A lot needs to be done to cut down overproduction and ensure proper disposal of shoes that are undesired.

Recycling Used Canvas Shoes

Crochet Hub Africa intervenes at this point to take care of the used canvas shoes. Commonly referred to as ‘Mtumba’ in Kenya, used shoes have a wide market for they are much more affordable in many households. Kids will outgrow these shoes while adults will pass them for new ones because they are probably undesired, worn out, torn, stained or faded. In most cases, it is the upper canvas part that wears out fastest because it is an organic fabric and thus biodegradable. Biodegradation of rubber soles is a very slow process. It takes quite long to culture enough bacteria that utilize them. This means that at any given point, the rubber soles are always in better shape than the top canvas of used shoes. The lives of these rubber soles can be extended so that they can be recycled as long as they can last.

Sourcing for Shoes to Recycle

We explore three strategies that we use to get hold of shoes whose soles we can use for crochet:

  1. If you want a new pair of shoes, and still have an old pair that can be recycled, we do an exchange then charge you less for the new shoes. We buy high grade used shoes in full bales for sale at our store so that clients who want to dispose their old ones can return to us and exchange them with new ones and thus pay less for the new shoes. When selling the bale fore mentioned, we are keen on the soles it would be great to recycle and urge the buyer to return them to us in case they want to dispose.
  2. We have an outlet where undesired old, stained, faded or torn canvas shoes that were not bought from us can be deposited in donation. Some of these shoes, especially the simply undesired ones are preserved and given away to be recycled later.
  3. We get the lowest grades of used shoes from markets costing as low as ksh.100 so long as the sole still has life and refurbish them using crochet.

The Recycling Process

  • Rubber soles that would have otherwise ended up in landfills are extracted and disinfected.
  • The soles are soaked in cold water overnight.
  • They are then scoured to get rid of stains and rinsed off.
  • The soles are heated up in boiling water for a few minutes then patted dry using a towel.
  • Using a cotton pad, glycerin is used to wipe the soles further.
  • The heat and glycerin treatment is repeated a few more times until the desired results are achieved.
  • The soles are dried in a shade for 24 hours.
  • A new upper part is sewn on to them using crochet with the design of the client in mind.

There are no industrial wastes in the production of crochet shoes as they are purely handmade. Crochet shoes are as new as the materials that go into their production. The life of crochet shoes can be extended by recycling yet again. They can be recycled as long as they still have life. Finally, when it is time to dispose them, the materials are too old, enough to decompose faster.

In the same breath as recycling used canvas shoes, Crochet Hub Africa recycles second hand woolen fabrics by reusing the yarn to make new garments. Again, the fashion industry is to blame for a bigger portion of the global carbon emissions. There is way too much clothing in the markets making, some of which ending up as waste, new waste. What an irony! We need to be able to make use of used clothes that still have life and interestingly, some of the used shoes can be recycled not once, but a couple of times before they can be discarded.

Re-using Strategies

We are interested particularly in second hand woolen clothing bales. Our favorite are bales with kids’ woolen stuff because a few of the used garments in there are always of good quality, most of them cotton, silk or linen. This also means that their lifespan is longer and since the bale is second-hand, they are not pricey. These are the fabrics we undo and use the yarn in our projects. While winding the yarn afresh, we can do a blend of different fabrics in anticipation of the project at hand. Our preference for cotton stems from the sustainability aspect; that they are both natural and highly biodegradable. They can be composited when their life ends. Yet still, we get numerous pieces in polyester and acrylic whose only advantage is that they can be re-used a couple more times that cotton for example. Otherwise, when they end up in landfills, they take decades to decompose.

This dress was released in the market in July 2022 and is the cheapest yet most desired of our dress collection 2022. Cheapest because the raw materials that went in it were a second-hand cotton baby blanket that cost only Ksh. 500 at the local market! The blanket was undone and the yarn was used to make a long gradient dress. First, the pattern and gradient of the blanket were studied and so as the yarn was being wound, it was in patterned balls. Lighter color shades were put around the trunk allowing the darker yarn shade fall in some sort of rings at the heels. The dress was fully handcrafted and thus there was no risk of carbon footprint, an element we are extremely keen on. A cotton lining was fitted to it to give it shape and life. Because of its high tensile strength, the dress is expected to last a year and the yarn thereafter can still be in a pouf chair or be used in hand-woven rugs.

Sustainability and Fashion Industry

One big problem in the fashion industry is sustainability. Whereas the industry uses up lots of natural resources during production of the clothing and footwear, it generates very harmful wastes that end up in waterways. The tons and tons of clothing produced by the industry have left the consumers with the perception that clothes and shoes are quick-moving commodities and hence, after just a few uses, these items are thrown away. The quick and enormous profits in the industry have blinded many manufacturers from the harm they are causing to the ecosystem.

How much clothing was produced over the World Cup 2022 season?

Let us explore the short World Cup season 2022 alone; but not the whole of it, just the final between France and Argentina. Again, let us narrow down to just a player for each of the teams. The sales of France’s Kylian Mbappe and Argentina’s Lionel Messi’s jerseys alone, soared by 200% during the final alone! And after the final the jerseys were completely out of stock or sold out. How many jerseys were therefore produced for the season for Messi alone? How many for Cameroon team for example? And how many for the season! Just how much clothing is produced in a year worldwide?

Why not Polyester or Nylon?

A woman in the rural set up goes to the market and purchases items whose selection criterion is largely affordability. We add durability and recyclability on her plate so that she can save from clothing. We try to make the customer-base understand what brand new clothes to opt for if they have a choice. Our choice of desired fabrics depends on whether the fiber that went in it is natural or synthetic, whether the process of making the fiber is renewable or non-renewable, whether the fiber is converted into yarn using harmful chemicals or not and the longevity as well as the end-life of the fabric in the long run. Unfortunately for very affordable and economical but non-biodegradable fabrics like nylon and polyester, have limited recycling options and are difficult to dispose safely. They are not ecofriendly as they cannot be easily recycled. Their production leads to the emission of greenhouse gasses because of the non-renewable energy used in producing them as well as the harmful chemicals in their composition.

Cotton, Woolen and Denim

We encourage the purchase of woolen, cotton and denim clothes as they are all made from organic raw materials and are highly recyclable. Organic cotton makes softer fabrics as it is made from longer fibers that have not been broken or weakened by cotton machinery since the picking of cotton is usually by hand. Not only is organic cotton made from natural fibers but also has no slightest trace of pesticides or chemicals. It is breathable and wicks sweat away. It is expected that this fabric be expensive. Denim is made from cotton that is worked upon in a twill. Whereas the warping yarn is twisted and dyed, the yarn in the weft is carded and its color maintained. Second hand denim clothes are highly fashionable. The internet is overflowing with ways of recycling old denim. Our version is blending jeans with crochet. Ideas to recycle wool are equally numerous. Woolen strands can be unwound from the fabrics and thereafter used in knitting and crochet as well as other handwork.