MATERIALS AND APPLICATIONS
Every material sorting and separation stage is fundamental, so that the secondary raw material obtained is of high quality
NEW LIFE FOR THE LINER One of the biggest challenges of the boot recycling project was the management of the liner. In fact, this is made up of foam materials and non-woven fabrics that cannot be separated and are therefore extremely difficult to reuse. The liner, after an initial grinding, is re-agglomerated to obtain a sheet of about 30 cm thick, with a balanced content between conventional polyurethane and pellets derived from the liner. Thanks to the partnership with Liski and Remat, the foam of the liner is used for the protection barriers used in ski-slopes which, following the crash tests carried out at the Stellantis-FCA laboratories, have given excellent results, so much so that today this product has become established on the market and is also used in World Cup races.
Italian technology plast / April 2025
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The foam of the liner is used as an internal layer of the Liski protection barriers installed along the ski-slopes
ary raw material, it is therefore necessary that the initial sorting stages are carried out with utmost care, separating everything that cannot be recycled or would otherwise affect the final quality of the recycled materials. In cooperation with Fecam, the Tecnica Group has therefore developed the database of sorting and separation methods that are the basis of all subsequent stages of the mechanical recycling of boots.
SHREDDING AND REGENERATION After the preparation stage, the boots enter the shredding, separation and regeneration stage. This phase of the project is managed by Laprima Plastics. After an initial shredding, the various materials are separated mechanically. The metals are divided into ferrous and non-ferrous metals, and plastics into polypropylene( PP) and thermoplastic polyurethane( TPU). The plastics are then extruded and dried using a technique specifically developed for this project, finally obtaining small pellets ready to be reused in Tecnica Group’ s industrial production. Recycled PP replaces virgin plastic in new Tecnica and Nordica ski boots, while recycled TPU is reused into components of Nordica and Blizzard skis and the outside counter of the Moon Boot snow boots. The best balance between recycled plastics and virgin plastics has been achieved with 30 % recycled polymers for the new skis and boots and 100 % recycled polymers in the case of the Moon Boots.
THE ENVIRONMENTAL VALUE The Recycle Your Boots project is fundamental if we consider that about 3 million pairs of ski boots are produced every year, of which about 2 million in Europe alone. At the end of their life cycle( after approximately 150 days of skiing), ski boots generate almost 10,000 tons of waste, of which 5,500 are plastics. The usual disposal method was to send the waste boot to landfill or incineration plants. This means that until 2021, materials such as highperformance plastics, metals and agglomerates went all lost. Today, Tecnica Group’ s RYB project not only recovers most of these materials, but it also prevents each pair of ski boots, otherwise disposed of as unsorted waste, from producing about 3 kg CO2 equivalent. Considering the complexity of the product treated( composite, multi-material and multi-brand), the yield is remarkable. The overall environmental impact of the project in the first 3 years is equal to approximately 412 tons of carbon dioxide saved.
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