As festivities end, Mumbai’s discarded footwear gets a second life

As the festivities of Mumbai's Ganeshotsav conclude, the discarded footwear from the event finds a new purpose through an innovative upcycling initiative. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) collected nearly eight tonnes of shoes, sandals and slippers from the festival, including four tonnes from idol arrival processions on August 29.

Instead of being discarded in landfills, the footwear is being sent to GreenSole Foundation for upcycling and distribution to underprivileged children in BMC schools and tribal areas across Maharashtra. The collection began after the Chinchpokli Cha Chintamani Ganpati aagman procession on August 29, with sanitation workers gathering footwear from key locations like Bharatmata Junction, Jijabai Lane, and the area near Chinchpokli railway station.

At GreenSole's Bhiwandi facility, the footwear undergoes a meticulous process of sorting, washing, sanitising, and dismantling. Usable components are then reassembled to create refurbished footwear, with unusable material repurposed into items such as school bags and sitting mats. While around 15% of the material becomes residual waste, the remaining components are ground into granules and sold to industries like automotive and furniture.

GreenSole has been involved in footwear upcycling for over a decade, processing more than a million pairs and reducing nearly 4,374 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions since 2016. Co-founder Ramesh Dhami explains that the initiative began when he realized the potential of salvaging usable soles from damaged shoes, even as the upper wore out.

This approach allows the BMC to divert a portion of festival waste from landfills while providing essential footwear to those in need.