People be receiving fewer glittery Christmas cards this year as harmful microplastics have been banned across the European Union.
The European Commission has outlawed the sale of plastics smaller than five millimetres and that are intentionally added to products but do not dissolve or break down naturally.
It’s a start. Certainly not the most ambitious start but it bans utterly useless products that nobody will miss.
Shoes are actually useful and they tend to emit microplastics from the sole. You’d need a scalable way to fix their soles without limiting poor people’s access to footwear. As far as I know there’s, as yet, no real, sustainable, scalable alternative to rubber soles. The only thing the EU can do here, is to discourage fast fashion and invest in manufacturers working on alternatives until they have, say, 20% market share.
Leather soles.
I know, I know, but it is far a more sturdy material than rubber and bio degradable, with a very long wear life.
The same techniques used to make a good comfortable shoe out of plastics can be applied to leather and natural materials.
I know people that have shoes and boots with more than twenty years of use (live in rural area, with shepperds and farmers). Require a good deal of care and some maintenance but can last a life time.