The first sneakers, made of ... chewing gum

It is hardly possible to find a person who has never chewed chewing gum. And in any educational institution, if you look under the countertop, you can certainly find whole deposits of this chewing gum. But what if the chewing gum can somehow be reused? This is exactly what one of the Amsterdam firms has been doing, producing from running gum their sneakers.

The main disadvantage of chewing gum for ecology (and at the same time, plus for recycling) is that it practically does not undergo a natural decomposition process, since it consists of a substance resembling rubber. The so-called synthetic rubber. It is much cheaper than natural, but because of the inability to decompose the chewing gum can form whole "ruminant dumps" on sidewalks and roadsides.

Immediately 3 companies joined the project to clean the environment: the city marketing company Iamsterdam, the design firm Explicit Wear and the Gunshoe company. They decided to use chewing gum for the sole of sneakers, which, according to experts, annually annually from the streets of Amsterdam, they collect about 1.5 million tons. The collected gum is processed to extract artificial rubber, from which the substance Gum-Tec, which is the basis of the sneakers, is subsequently manufactured. One kilogram of gum is enough to produce 4 pairs of shoes. As the producers say,

"Gum-Tec itself is made in the form of pellets, and then out of them the sole is already molded. It turns out to be as strong as rubber, although it smells of chewing gum. Of course, chew it is not worth it. In addition, it is not sticky. The rest of the shoe is made of leather, and the cost of the final product is 190 euros. "

The article is based on materials https://hi-news.ru/eto-interesno/predstavleny-pervye-krossovki-izgotovlennye-iz-zhevatelnoj-rezinki.html.