Braskem America, together with footwear brands adidas and Allbirds, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), are teaming up to to reduce the waste generated by permanently cross-linked EVA, the rubbery material that forms the cushion of shoe midsoles, through the development of a dynamic crosslinking technology that facilitates both the direct reuse of process scrap and the recyclability of discarded sports shoes
Braskem’s polymer recycling technology research partnership has been awarded a $504,000 Research, Demonstration, and Development (RD&D) grant from the Reducing Embodied Energy and Decreasing Emissions (REMADE) Institute, a public-private partnership established by the United States Department of Energy (DOE).
The REMADE Institute enables the early-stage applied research and development of key industrial platform technologies that could dramatically reduce the embodied energy and carbon emissions associated with industrial-scale materials production and processing. By focusing its efforts on the technical and economic barriers that prevent greater material recycling, recovery, remanufacturing, and reuse, the REMADE Institute seeks to motivate industry investments to advance technology development and support the U.S. manufacturing ecosystem. The U.S. Department of Energy and REMADE selected 14 projects in October 2023 with a combined total of $9.8 million in research and development funding. Since the Institute's founding in 2017, REMADE has launched or selected nearly 100 R&D projects, representing a total combined value of nearly $100 million.
Image Courtesy of Braskem