Applying Product Service Systems to Shoes: Attitudes Towards Eco-Leasing Footwear in Italy

Abstract

Causing major concerns in relation to water consumption and pollution, carbon emissions, deforestation and post-consumer disposal, the fashion industry is regarded as the fourth most polluting sector after food, transport and housing. In particular, disposing of used shoes in a sustainable manner poses a major challenge due to the complex structure of footwear. Although recycling is usually regarded as the most suitable strategy to deal with discarded shoes, only 5% of the 20 billion pairs of shoes that are wasted each year are to some extent recycled, while most of the remaining 95% is landfilled. Over the last few decades, the circular economy (CE) concept has received increasing attention worldwide as a means to create a more sustainable society through the adoption of closing-the-loop production patterns. However, creating a circular society would require a deep remodellation of the way production and consumption occur. Eco-leasing, in particular, represents a specific type of ‘circular’ business model that could bring about the transition to a CE in the footwear industry. Although eco-leasing is ultimately based on the concept of product lease, its distinguishing characteristic is that returned goods undergo a combination of remanufacturing and recycling processes and represent sources of secondary raw materials to manufacture new products. Thus, this study aims at investigating the attitude of both companies and consumers from the Italian footwear sector towards eco-leasing, so as to assess its potential to be implemented in the industry. Considering the business sphere, thirteen in-depth interviews were conducted engaging relevant experts from the Italian footwear sector. This was followed by the development and launch of a survey targeting the potential end-consumers of this scheme, which made it possible to encompass also their viewpoint about the topic under investigation. The findings not only made it possible to identify the main drivers and barriers that both companies and consumers associate to the practice of eco-leasing, but they also added new insights to the existing literature on firms’ awareness of concepts such as CE and product service system (PSS), on the one hand, and to current knowledge on consumers’ attitudes towards sustainable consumption patterns, on the other hand. Finally, recommendations for both practitioners and academia are provided based on the main findings.