Wind sneakers: World-first shoes made with recycled wind blades launched
ACCIONA Energía, the core of Spanish multinational conglomerate ACCIONA’s energy division, and fashion company El Ganso launched a new limited-edition line of sneakers “EL Ganso x ACCIONA” that feature materials from recycled wind turbine blades.
The new sneakers feature exclusive design that includes brands of both companies and a reference to the origin of recycled material used to make the sole.
Challenge of blade recycling
Blades are more complex to recycle due to their composite materials such as glass fiber, carbon fiber, resins and other polymers.
The main challenge of blade recycling is to develop solutions that are both environmentally sustainable and economically viable at large scale.
Groundbreaking technique enables circularity
The shoes’ soles are manufactured with a micronizing process, using dismantled wind turbine blades from a 23-meter-long blade from the Aibar Wind Farm in Navarra, Spain.
Through an advanced mechanical transformation process, size of fiberglass and epoxy resins is reduced to microns. The resulting powder is then combined with rubber to ensure a sole that maintains strength, grip and durability of conventional shoes.
ACCIONA Energía has also recently announced the construction of Waste2Fiber, an industrial-scale wind blade recycling plant in Lumbier, Navarra.
