From Old Ski Boots to New Life: How LIFE RESKIBOOT Closes the Cycle of Ski-Boot Waste Through High-Purity Recycling

What happens to the thousands of ski boots discarded every season? Most of them end up in landfills — a complex mixture of plastics, metals and foam that is difficult to recycle. But the team behind the LIFE RESKIBOOT project, coordinated by the Bulgarian company Grifone, decided to change that.

With the support of the LIFE programme, the project demonstrates that even the most challenging waste can get a second life. Over the course of four years, the project partners developed an innovative technology that enables almost full recovery of materials from end-of-life ski boots.

The results are impressive — nearly 2,000 pairs collected, and over 70 % of the plastic recycled at 99 % purity. Thanks to a new sorting method, mixed plastics can be processed without pre-separation, saving time, resources and energy.

Even the internal parts of the boots, made from thermoset foam (often considered “non-recyclable”), find new use. After mechanical grinding, the material is used for new foams, which in some cases are more durable than the original.

The technology is no longer confined to the lab — it has been tested on slopes. In 2022, the team produced 1,000 pairs of new ski boots from recycled materials, and these were tested by real skiers. The feedback was excellent.
Although these boots are not intended for commercial sale, the knowledge and technologies developed in the project are already applied in other products — for example, children’s models with up to 80 % recycled plastic content.

By 2027, it is expected that 27,000 pairs produced via the project will become available for purchase, each pair saving waste, carbon emissions, and raw materials. In this way, RESKIBOOT is projected to prevent 61,500 kg of waste from landfilling, 200 tons of greenhouse gas emissions, and 7,500 GJ of oil and natural gas needed for raw material production.

After its success, the team launched a new initiative — LIFE re_WINTER — aimed at expanding the process to other winter sport products.

LIFE RESKIBOOT is a clear example of how innovative solutions and LIFE programme support can turn waste into valuable resources and inspire new green ideas across Europe.