Clean Climber - From climbing shoe to sports floor

A new value chain

Regarding our environmental impact , the current status quo for the climbing sport is not looking great. For climbing to have the right to exist in the future, we have to act now. As such the Clean Climber Foundation together with climbing gym Monk and circularity expert The Bin looked for ways to bring circularity to the sport. They found their solution in a new system for both the repair and recycling of climbing shoes. Climbing shoes are collected in various bins placed at climbing gyms. Shoes are then taken to either a specialized shoe maker, or are shredded. 50% of the climbing shoe consists of rubber. This material is collected from the shredded shoes and transformed through a series of steps into flooring for the climbing gyms.

A simple product, a complex background

Throughout our projects, we as The Bin have seen how simple upcycled products can have a complex process behind them. A couple of steps are needed in order to reuse the material from a ‘waste’ product. First the different materials in the product need to be separated. Then those materials are processed into a raw material. This raw material will then be remanufactured into a half-fabricate which can be transformed into a new product. Both the possibilities, and the quality of the end product depend on the type of machine used in each step. There are various ways to separate materials, just as there are different ways of extracting the raw material. As such, each ‘waste’ product has each own exploration and search for the best value chain. In the case of climbing shoes, we worked with the first machine in Europe that is able to shred shoes and separate these in their respective material.

From a speciality, to common practice

You can deliver your climbing shoes in sixteen different climbing gyms in the Netherlands, and the project is scaling towards France. Always with the same goal: to change the climbers perspective. From repairing or recycling as a speciality, towards common practice.