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Navigating just how Eco-friendly, sustainable, ethical, and renewable products are is some seriously tricky business, especially in the realm of footwear. Many companies are now pushing shoes made from recycled plastic, but what exactly does that mean? In terms of sustainability, did we just buy 4 more years of life for plastic shoes that will eventually and inevitably end up on trash island with their older brothers and sisters? Thank goodness we’ve got some bright minds working on cleaning up our excess plastic.

Some companies do indeed have a return process where they themselves will reuse the raw material, but that takes a ton of energy too, so what’s the real benefit beyond sentiment? Don’t get me wrong, a change in mindset is important but I ventured to find something better.

I want shoes that you can throw in your compost heap. That will be dirt that you can throw into your no-till woodland food forest and sit back feeling like you made your best attempt to keep your shoes out of the ocean and out of a landfill.

At first I thought what about shoes made from rope? I’ve seen those before I think. Sure enough I found them and they’re manufactured in a state close by! But alas, they’re polypropylene rope, they’re plastic rope shoes. What the heck? They even have a hemp colored rope. Tricky. Tricky.

So first up is Kyrgies. Definitely an interesting look. Made from felted wool with leather bottoms. Wool is great. It wicks moisture. It grows back. Leather may be an ethical issue for some but it biodegrades eventually. And that’s a big eventually, takes a couple of decades, though they do sell a pair with chromium-free tanned leather and will probably break down more quickly, still you’re looking at probably 10 years before the bottom of these bad boys are soil in your garden. Sadly enough, we’ll see these are actually one of the best options if “compostable” is your upmost priority:

Next is Rawganique. These come in a ton of different styles for both men and women. They’re vegan. They’re made from hemp canvas. They’re not made in sweat-shops. They’re free from “forever chemicals,” whatever that means. Everything is “chemical” but I get where they’re going. But the soles are rubber. Dang it. They try to sell it as “natural rubber.” Sure, natural rubber degrades, takes a half a century though. Also natural rubber while sold as sustainable displaces rainforest ecosystems in a significant way. So sure, your shoes aren’t hurting cows, but they’re hurting plenty of animals in the rainforest. Can’t grow a tree out of shoes if I have to wait 50 years. Let’s try again.

Basically the same as Rawganique, the Canadian company Native makes a plant based shoe. They tried hard here. Once again we’ve still got rubber soles. They used some fancy wording on these bad boys though: “Derived from the virgin milk of a hevea tree” Oh wow. Love me some virgin tree milk. Oh wait, I’ve had chemistry so we call that RUBBER.

Well, there’s always the wooden dutch shoes right? I bought a pair of these about a decade ago. You could use them for gardening and definitely 100 percent biodegradable, especially if you buy the untreated ones. They’re usually made from willow. Quick growing, no rubber. Though if you wore them to work you’d probably look like a psychopath.

Lastly, for commercial options, and for summer use only we’ve got some straw sandals from China. Ebay only find. Probably made in the equivalent of an outdoor sweatshop. But no cows, no rainforest displacement. Renewable hemp. As far as carbon footprint probably much smaller than the other shoes honestly. TOTALLY compostable, probably in a single season.

And there we have it. 2020 and barely any options for biodegradable footwear options. Bummer. I was so disheartened in researching this particular topic I watched some youtube and made my own sandals from Yucca in our garden.

Here’s my best attempt:

I feel happy with them for my first go. Wonder how long they’ll last?