What are flip flops made of?
Not much good news here – they used to be primarily made from rubber and while rubber flip flops can still be purchased today, they are often made from polyurethane; as are the soles of many shoes. Polyurethane is a number 7 resin, meaning that you can’t throw these into your recycling bin. While there are some companies out there recycling polyurethane, they usually only accept it in large quantities. Being constructed from polyurethane, which is yet another plastic derived from crude oil, this means they are going to be hanging around the environment for a very, very long time once discarded. Flip flops were one of the most common items I used to find when cleaning up a section of a local river bank. I picked up dozens of them in a very short stretch, so I’d hate to think how many millions of these things are floating around the waterways of the world. What can be done with retired flip flops? The most creative use I’ve seen for flip-flops was when I was a teenager working for a guy
