Innovation

The company collects, recycles and designs appealing apparel merchandise. The management is currently focused on recycled tires and PET plastic shoes. Ecü has already recycled up to 1,000 tires. There is great potential to alleviate the pollution problem since there are 40 million tires in use, 91% of which are disposed of incorretly.

The company estimates that the combustion of scrap tires may represent the equivalent of CO2 generated by one car during a whole year. The company is currently working on obtaining further information about generating CO2 recycling and publishing the results.

The product packaging is handmade by indigenous women who participate in the Zihuame Mochila, A.C. entrepreneurship program. By 2017, the sales rate was able to sustain 174 women, but the company hopes to increase that number by 150% in 2018.

While the company works with footwear, it plans to expand its product portfolio to include more clothes and get involved in the recycling of more types of wasted materials.

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Inspiration

To develop the idea, Daniel Norona was inspired by a Mexican indigenous group called the Tarahumaras, who were wearing flip-flops made from wasted tires. They were cutting a piece to form a thick sole and they complemented it with other pieces of tire. With that invention, they walked many kilometers and the shoes lasted a long time. As a result, Ecü adopted this idea from the Tarahumaras to solve the major problem caused from unused tires in Mexico, where 40 million are discarded annually and only 5% are recycled.

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Overall impact

Today, the company has already helped recycle 1,000 tires from different dumps to eliminate their being burned or dumped into rivers and oceans. This has been achieved mainly from the sale and distribution of their shoes made with sole tire.

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Business benefit

The company generates about $3,000 in sales per month through its e-commerce website and social media influencers . The company targets a captive niche market: consumer communities whose interests and shopping habits are highly sustainable and ecologically oriented. Ecü aims to increase its sales output in other clothing areas to establish a precedent for the apparel retail industry. One of its main purposes is to make all preparations to capitalize profits so the apparel retail industry can follow these sustainable practices and trends.

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Social and environmental benefit

This innovation could bring many social and environmental benefits.

In Mexico, there are over than 40 million tires wasted annually. While only around 5% are recycled, a dangerous 91% end up in underground dumps.

The market potential is great since every person needs at least one or two pairs of footwear. The key is to create more companies with the same processes and goals which will lead to lower product prices.

Socially, Ecü has an alliance with the “Asociación de Zihuame Mochila A. C.”, in order to give jobs to indigenous women of Oaxaca, México, a very vulnerable sector in the society. Within this alliance, the company has helped over 174 indigenous women. The objective is to increase the support to this group of women by 150%.

The project also tries to inspire other entrepreneurs to create initiatives and make the society aware of the large problem of the wasted tires in the country.

Ecü already has alliances with recycled material providers and plans to get more partners, helping to create new employment opportunities.

Environmentally, the benefit is even greater, since the main mission of Ecü is to take the 40 million tires wasted yearly and transform them into footwear through the recycling of the materials.

This activity leads to a "breakthrough innovation" since it will stop the burning of tires which negatively impacts the environment. It has been estimated that one single burned tire emits the same amount of CO2 pollution as one regular car riding a whole year.

So far, Ecü has already collected over 1,000 tires. Since one regular car, on average, pollutes 2,351 kilograms of CO2 each year, the company has saved over 2,351,000 kilograms of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere.

Additionally, the wasted tires become a refuge for plagues and insects that transmit diseases, like dengue.

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Interview

Daniel Noroña, Mr.

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