Portugal's shoemakers rethink business models, recycle in green push

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The factory worker grabbed a handful of worn-out shoes and fed them into roaring machines that chopped and crushed and transformed them into "eco-rubber" - part of a green push in Portugal's footwear industry. "We were throwing away, burying, sending to landfill about 300 tonnes" of materials a year, sales head Pedro Saraiva said at the factory in the northern town of Felgueiras. Friday's "shoes green pact" was drawn up by the Portuguese Footwear Association, representing companies in Europe's third largest footwear producer after Italy and Spain.