The World'S First Test Of The Old Shoe Recovery System Has Been Successful

< p > over the past 1 centuries, with the growth of the world population, the garbage made by human beings has increased 10 times. By 2025, this quantity may be doubled again.

Garbage produces faster than other environmental pollutants such as greenhouse gases.

Waste disposal has become one of the major expenses of the municipal budget.

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< p > recently, the world's first < a href= "//www.sjfzxm.com/news/index_c.asp" > old shoes < /a > dismantling and comprehensive recovery system for useful materials has been successfully tested.

The system can separate leather, plastic foam and rubber into granules, and can be used to lay the rubber surface of sports grounds, and can even be used for producing new shoes again.

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< p > the system is developed and tested by the innovation and construction research center of Loughborough University (IMCRC), which is a research project of the center for ten years.

Professor Shahin Rahimifard, who is responsible for the study, said: "because a href=" //www.sjfzxm.com/news/index_c.asp "> footwear < /a > may be made up of up to 40 different materials, and many of them need to be polymerized together by sewing and bonding, so it is very difficult to reclaim.

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< p > > a href= "//www.sjfzxm.com/pioneer/" > Rahimifard < /a > said: "our recycling process first divides the shoes into large categories by hand, such as sports shoes, etc., and then restores the metal such as buttonholes on shoes.

Then the machine is used to cut the shoes into fine particles, which will be automatically divided into 4 kinds of waste materials, such as leather, foam, rubber and other materials.

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< p > the system first used the granulator to make shoes into 3~4 millimeter pieces, and then used the low cost air separation technology developed by the project to separate the different materials according to the size and weight.

For example, first use air cascade separator to separate lighter fabric particles, fine leather, foam and heavier particles, and then make use of the vibration of pneumatic platform to form granular materials at different levels (lighter particles float above heavy particles, and finally achieve the purpose of separating rubber from foam and leather).

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< p > researchers point out that each recycled waste has different uses.

For example, recycled leather fibers can be used to produce regenerated leather cushions; recycled rubber can be used for laying runways or used as surface materials for sports fields; for some types of footwear, they can be smashed to make new soles, so as to achieve the so-called recycling "closed loop"; recycled foam can be used to strengthen flooring materials for floors and carpets; blended fabrics and other lighter materials are mainly used as building insulation materials.

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< p > it is learnt that the research team of Loughborough University is negotiating with a recycling company who intends to incorporate the recycling system into its business.

At the same time, the team also used the funds provided by the UK engineering and Natural Science Council to work with major footwear manufacturers to explore how to design shoes that are more recyclable in the future.

On this basis, the team has developed a computer-aided tool to help footwear designers in selecting materials or exploring combinations of specific materials that are more conducive to recycling.

The closer the density of the two materials is, the greater the difficulty of separating them into particles, which will also push up the cost of recycling, researchers have found.

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< p > Rahimifard said: "our ultimate goal is to stimulate people's interest in recycling industry through further follow-up studies.

But we believe that this research has already made a solid step towards the economic benefits of footwear like recycling of glass, plastic and paper. "

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"P", the researchers point out that this breakthrough is expected to bring huge environmental benefits. At present, around 20 billion pairs of shoes are produced around the world each year, of which 95% will eventually be sent to landfills.

So far, the only way to avoid discarded shoes being buried is to deposit them in the shoe products bank for two times.

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