Stylish Shoes Molded From Recycled Cardboard

When I was doing research for this article, I learned a lot about cardboard with regards to recycling. There are two types of cardboard. The first is what’s called corrugated cardboard, and it’s the type of cardboard we normally see things packed in for shipping. It has that lightweight ruffled layer in the middle of the two flat pieces. The second type of cardboard is the kind we see everywhere, like cereal boxes, other food containers, pizza boxes, etc…

Since over 85% of the things sold in the States alone are packed in corrugated cardboard (imagine what that number is worldwide), and since that cardboard comes from pulp extracted from trees, it’s important to recycle it for obvious reasons. The second type of cardboard I described is many times not recyclable since it’s contaminated with food or covered in a wax coating. If you would like information about this, you can go to How To Recycle Cardboard.

Mark O’Brien, who describes himself as a crazy cardboard craftsman, doesn’t recycle his corrugated cardboard. Instead, he makes things with it, like these shoes. Some of his creations are wearable, some are not. These shoes are not. Each pair is made from a cardboard beer crate and glue, and each pair is one-of-a-kind. He says it’s sometimes difficult to mold and bend the cardboard into the correct shape, and based on how hard it is for me to breakdown awkward cardboard boxes, I can imagine what that must be like. If you would like to purchase a pair of these, you can go to Mark’s website. You can also check out more of this work on his Flickr photostream.

Via: [Junk Culture] [Cardboard Recycling]