The Deja shoe
On Earth Day in 1970, 16-year-old American Julie Lewis watched people all over the US rallying for the earth. She vowed then that
she would contribute towards saving the earth, that she would make a difference with her life. She later founded a company, Deja,
which makes shoes from textile scraps. These go into the shoe's cotton-canvas fabric, while the foam cushioning is recycled chair
padding. Factory-reject coffee-filters and file folders go into the insole, along with grocery bags, tyre rubber, and plastic trimmings
from disposable diapers. The shoes are handsome and durable and sell for between US$40 and $70 a pair.15
It was not easy persuading recycling operations to supply materials. Nor, to her disappointment, could Julie find a manufacturer in the
US interested in or capable of producing a shoe of the required quality. She was determined that recycling would not get a bad name
because quality could not be delivered. Today, the Deja shoe range is made in Taiwan. More than 100,000 pairs are marketed
annually across the US, and customers are encouraged to return the shoes when they are worn out to be recycled themselves.
Waste reduction, re-use, and recycling can, taken together, reduce landfill needs and lessen not only the environmental impact of
waste disposal, but also the much greater environmental damage caused by extracting and processing raw materials.
Developed countries have become conscious of the need for recycling. But we should expect more in this respect from them than
from developing ones, because they are the largest consumers and because they can afford it. In the US, there are 5,000 programmes
collecting recyclables from 85 million people nationwide, and nearly 65 per cent of aluminium cans, 25 per cent of paper and steel
cans, and 20 per cent of glass in the country is recycled. But this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Reducing consumption,
rather than merely recycling, makes the difference. It can be done, as Julie Lewis demonstrated by reducing the use of fresh raw
materials in her business. She has shown that an environmentally friendlier way of living can also be practical.
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