In 1984, Teva created the world’s first sport sandal on the banks of the Grand Canyon, and spurred a cultural phenomenon and a new era in river footwear. Today the brand outfits paddlers and other adventure-seekers globally with the same versatile, functional and iconic outdoor footwear across every category, and that comes with some pressure to do the right thing.
In 2020, Teva committed to reducing the brand’s environmental impact by ensuring 100 percent of its straps are made with recycled plastic. Now, the brand says it is committed to improving its sustainable business practices so that future generations are given the same opportunity to explore our planet for years to come with its first ever reclamation and recycling program.
When well-worn Teva sandals are ready to be retired, there has never been a great place for them to go. Now Teva says its new TevaForever partnership with international recycling leader TerraCycle is giving discarded Teva sandals a new life.
Through the TevaForever Recycling Program, well-loved Teva sandals can be mailed to TerraCycle at no cost to the customer, diverting them from landfills so they can be recycled into something new. Teva’s long-term vision is to work towards solutions to one day fully close the loop by recycling old Teva sandals into new ones.
“The partnership with TerraCycle is a huge step forward in our ongoing commitment to minimize our brand’s environmental impact. The TevaForever Recycling Program gives our fans an easy way to join the cause, knowing we will give their sandals new life,” says Anders Bergstrom, Vice President and General Manager of Teva. “We can’t do this without our fans, and I’m thrilled to see the impact we will make together.”
Visit Teva.com to sign up and download a prepaid shipping label. The recycling leader will clean the sandals and separate materials to prepare for processing. The processed material will be used by manufacturers to make a number of new products including playgrounds, athletic fields, and track ground cover. “Teva sandal owners can now take comfort in knowing that when their favorite pair of sandals finally wears out, they won’t experience any of the guilt that comes with throwing them away,” said TerraCycle CEO and Founder, Tom Szaky. “The TevaForever Recycling Program offers consumers the opportunity to recycle their well-loved sandals while preserving the environment for generations to come.”
The partnership with TerraCycle is the latest in Teva’s ever-evolving commitment to reducing its environmental footprint.
In addition to the brand’s 2020 sustainability initiative, in which Teva transitioned 100% of its iconic straps to recycled plastic using REPREVE yarn, the brand has achieved the following:
// Since 2020 Teva has diverted over 40.2 million plastic bottles, equal to 755 tons of postconsumer plastic or 1,510,000 pounds of plastic, from landfills.
// Teva has reduced its overall water usage and worked with its supply chain partners to
improve their water conservation efforts.
// All of Teva’s leather is sourced from tanneries certified by Leather Working Group;
whose mission is to promote sustainable and appropriate environmental business
practices within the leather industry. Teva also supports the Better Cotton Initiative, the
largest cotton sustainability program in the world.
// Since 2020 Teva reduced approximately 6.6 million pounds of Greenhouse Gas Emission
(eq. Carbon Dioxide), 2.3 billion liters of water (or 622 million gallons of water), and 56
million MJ of energy (or equivalent to 437,740 gallons of gasoline).
// Since 2017 Teva has saved 348 million gallons of water, thanks to its packaging
improvements, and reduced the total weight of packaging used by 4.1 million pounds.
TerraCycle is an innovative waste management company with a mission to eliminate the idea of waste. Operating nationally across 20 countries, TerraCycle partners with leading consumer product companies, retailers and cities to recycle products and packages, from dirty diapers to cigarette butts, that would otherwise end up being landfilled or incinerated. In addition, TerraCycle works with leading consumer product companies to integrate hard to recycle waste streams, such as ocean plastic, into their products and packaging. Its new division, Loop, is the first shopping system that gives consumers a way to shop for their favorite brands in durable, reusable packaging. TerraCycle has won over 200 awards for sustainability and has donated over $44 million to schools and charities since its founding more than 15 years ago and was named #10 in Fortune magazine’s list of 52 companies Changing the World.
