A “family” startup has designed children's shoes that dissolve in water when the little foot gets too big to wear them. The fabric of the shoe is made of a sort of water-soluble plastic (the same one that covers drug capsules, some bags, or detergents for washing machines and dishwashers, so to speak) but is designed to "withstand" the growth of two children.
Woolybubs, the shoe that does its job and goes away
Jesse Milliken and his wife Meghan they didn't focus first on the eco-sustainability of their children's shoes, but on their resistance. The material is ok, but children, especially small ones, sometimes even start chewing a shoe: they couldn't risk it melting in their mouth. For this reason, they assure, the shoes do their job very well, and will biodegrade only when they are really no longer needed.
The garbage generated by the textile and fashion industry is serious and manifests itself especially in children's clothing from infancy to kindergarten, when clothes have an expiry date guaranteed by the child's physical growth. As many as 300 million pairs of children's shoes end up in landfill every year. Each pair takes 40 years to decompose. This reflection, simple yet ruthless, gave birth to Woolybubs.
“Soluble” children's shoes: a year of study, many years of walking
“It took us almost a year to develop this fabric that was strong enough,” Milliken says. “It's a bit ironic to use the word 'durable' for children, who change so quickly: let's say the shoe is durable enough to last and last as long as necessary, and then break and degrade in the right conditions.”
The material, to the touch similar to silk, uses polyvinyl alcohol or (PVA), a biodegradable and water-soluble plastic in each component: it dissolves completely in boiling water. Meaning what? Does it disappear? Does it become NOTHING?
We must be clear on this, and tell ourselves that the situation... is not clear. Some researchers say the result is a solution that would likely require more work to filter some of its components, and our wastewater systems are not all equipped to handle this possible “dissolved plastic flow.” Other researchers have instead presented studies showing its complete dissolution in wastewater, leaving nothing harmful in its wake.
As responsible parents, the Millikens commissioned an ad hoc study of the PVA used by their children's shoes.
Waiting to understand if their shoe can be "flushed down the toilet" (joke) or simply sent to the company that will compost it, a round of applause for the idea, and fingers crossed for its feasibility.
