These sandals replace petroleum with sugarcane. How smug can I be about wearing them?
Fossil fuels aren’t sustainable, but alternatives aren't perfect, either.
By Rob Verger August 1, 2018
Allbirds, the shoe brand known for stylish sneakers with a merino wool upper, have announced a line of flip-flops that swaps traditionally-manufactured soles for a material made with Brazilian sugarcane. A common component in footwear is a foam called EVA—or ethylene-vinyl acetate. Allbirds’ new Sugar Zeffer sandals replace part of that material, which usually comes from petroleum, with sugarcane.
Here’s how it works, from field to flip-flop: Allbirds is using sugarcane grown in São Paulo state, in Brazil’s southeast. At a mill, “it’s kind of squished,†says Joey Zwillinger, one of Allbirds’ founders. One of the products of that sugarcane squishing is a liquid called molasses; added yeast feasts on that sugary substance and produces ethanol. The process continues from there, and eventually, the ethanol is made into ethylene—or the “E†in EVA foam. Allbirds adds other substances into the mix to produce what they’re calling SweetFoam.
https://www.popsci.com/allbirds-sugarcane-sandals
