Snow of Tomorrow | Skiing in Circles – Part III

Slowing Down Resource Loops Through Individual Choices

We as consumers can, of course, play a part in making the world a bit more circular. First of all, we can avoid buying things we don’t need. Do we need to swap out gear just because there’s a newer version in a cooler color or print? We can rethink the way we use products. Do we have to own everything, or can we share, borrow or rent things we don’t need that much? There are, of course, ski rentals in every ski resort, but other actors such as the Austrian Alpine Club (ÖAV) rent equipment as well — from snowshoes to avalanche safety sets, harnesses, ice axes and crampons, as well as maps and climbing topos.

In many cases, there’s no need to buy all of your equipment new. We can reuse products from others that are still in great condition. Online platforms like Willhaben, Kleinanzeigen or various Facebook groups offer loads of more or less used gear — and mostly cheaper as well. Different second-hand snow sport flea markets are also popping up and offer great opportunities for finding and selling equipment. Buying snow sport equipment second-hand is the way to go in many cases. Some brands are even offering their own limited second-hand sales. Salomon recovers winter sports equipment from resorts and resells it in their outlet stores. Stone Snowboards sells boards with small aesthetic defects and second-hand boards used for test weekends or shows. To extend product life, we can also make sure our equipment receives proper maintenance and is stored the right way. Most brands offer maintenance and storage guides for their equipment. Bring your skis in for a service every now and then. Don’t store your skis on the roof of your car for the whole winter (I hope my neighbor reads this). Look up the recommended summer storage for your climbing skins and so on. And just because something is broken doesn’t mean it necessarily has to be thrown away. Superglue and P-Tex sticks can go a long way.

Occasional campaigns and projects are, of course, great and can, if nothing else, inspire brands to come up with creative ideas for products that have reached the end of their lifetimes. However, in order to be “fully circular,” brands need to rethink their business models to slow, narrow and close resource loops. To slow resource loops, we need products that have been designed to last. This means durable and repairable products made from regenerative, reusable and recyclable materials. Easier said than done. However, circular design can also include timeless design, meaning products designed in a way that doesn’t go out of style and encourages consumers to buy new equipment just because the gear they already have fell out of fashion. KORUA boards and 1000 Skis prove this doesn’t mean creating boring products — quite the opposite. SLASH by GiGi offers TopArt Stickers in case you do get bored of your current board design or if your topsheet is looking a bit rough.

By increasing efficiency in the production process and reducing the amount of natural resources and materials used, companies can narrow the material loops. This can be achieved through actions such as energy efficiency, the use of renewable energies, reducing the amount of production waste as well as heat recovery, to name a few. Many brands are already using renewable energy in their production processes, some together with heat recovery systems from their ski presses — proving that production doesn’t have to be super wasteful. Fully closing the loop is not an easy task, but reusing and recycling production waste is at least a step in the right direction, and brands out there are recycling plastics, sawdust, scrap wood and metals. Collaboration offers brands the possibility to share resources and knowledge.

The world isn’t producing skis at a similar rate to, let’s say, textiles, so setting up take-back and recycling systems together probably makes more sense than each brand running its own schemes. And the snow sport industry is pretty good at collaborating, with projects such as the Ski Industry Climate Summit and the WINTRUST project, which has already been mentioned in articles one and two of this series. The Ski Industry Climate Summit connects not only brands but also other stakeholders, such as resorts and various organizations, to work together toward a more sustainable snow sport industry.

For future ski recycling systems, there are already functioning take-back systems for used ski boots, run by both Tecnica and Atomic — proving that these systems work and already providing heaps of knowledge and networks for future ski recycling. Between January and March 2023, Atomic collected more than 2,500 pairs of ski boots from retailers across Austria. Within the first three years of Tecnica’s Recycle Your Boots project (2021–2024), the company managed to collect more than 28,000 pairs of ski boots — not only proving that they have functioning take-back systems, but also that there is a whole bunch of gear out there needing to be recycled.