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Volcom Sandals Get Eco-True Treatment
New for 2020 select Volcom men's and women's E-cliner series sandals now feature topsole footbeds utilizing Bloom™ flexible foams produced from algae biomass
Algae is the fastest growing plant on Earth, and while it is a vital component of aquatic ecosystems, too much of it will have an adverse effect on plant, animal, and even human life that depend on such ecosystems to survive. With the rise in global temperatures, excess nutrient runoff and increased human activity, algae growth in ecosystems around the world are increasingly becoming more susceptible to uncontrollable rises in algae growth. The result? Problematic algae blooms.
With Volcom's commitment to increasing the amount of recycled content and responsibly sourced renewable material in our products, finding a partner like Bloom was key to us keeping our commitment to continued responsible sourcing.
Bloom's products utilize excess algae biomass harvested from ecosystems in need of algae management. As algae biomass does not require fossil fuel or arable land to grow, it's the perfect resource for creating useful materials. Bloom's determination to reverse the effects of water pollution by working with natural resources like algae to create sustainable materials, generate clean water, and maintain healthy ecosystems, also has the added ecological benefit in that algae is a natural collector and sequester of CO2.
Bloom's Rise algae-blended resin is an environmentally conscious, high performance replacement for traditional petroleum-based EVAs used in our E-cliner sandals and Draft sneakers. Using data from a third-party peer-reviewed study, it is calculated that the production of a single pair of men's E-cliner sandals or Draft sneakers returns the equivalent 162 bottles of fresh water to the habitat as well as keeps the equivalent of 18 balloons of CO2e from entering the atmosphere. And in our women's E-cliner series sandals it's 83 bottles and 9 balloons, respectively.
Based on Bloom's "Life Cycle Assessment" (LCA) Bloom has 20-41% fewer impacts across the following categories when compared to conventional EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate... a rubber-like plastic) production: Ecosystem, Resources, Cumulative Energy Demand, Climate Change and Water.
Also men's E-cliner sandal straps are lined with Econyl® 100% regenerated nylon produced by recycling lost fishing nets and other discarded nylon material. Eco-True, True To This.