It is well recognized globally that the footwear industry contributes to a large waste stream throughout its life cycle. This article reviews the literature pertaining to the life cycle of footwear products and their End-of-Life (EoL) management strategies. The review discusses critical aspects of the footwear industry, commencing with a background on the growth and consumption of footwear products across the globe. The review provides an overview of the environmental impacts of different footwear materials across their life cycles. In this regard, leather materials are given intense focus due to their poor environmental performance. The review further examines proactive and reactive approaches to footwear waste management, whilst additionally exploring the challenges facing EoL footwear recovery. Finally, pyrolysis is examined as a thermochemical treatment process with value due to its potential to recover materials from post-consumer footwear. The significant findings in this review paper are as follows: (a) leather footwear materials have the most detrimental environmental impacts across their life cycle; (b) there is limited scientific literature on thermochemical processes (particularly pyrolysis) as waste recovery options for post-consumer footwear; and (c) several challenges face the recovery of post-consumer footwear products, including inefficient reverse logistics, mixed product recycling and difficulties establishing a value recovery chain. This review paper recommends further research on pyrolysis as a potential post-consumer footwear recovery option. Exploring the viability of new avenues for footwear waste recovery is significant due to its potential to divert this waste stream from landfills and allow a progression toward a more circular economy.

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鞋类行业的生命周期和报废管理选项：综述

众所周知，制鞋业在其整个生命周期中都会产生大量废物流。本文回顾了有关鞋类产品生命周期及其寿命终止 (EoL) 管理策略的文献。该评论讨论了鞋类行业的关键方面，首先介绍了全球鞋类产品的增长和消费背景。该评论概述了不同鞋类材料在其整个生命周期中对环境的影响。在这方面，皮革材料因其较差的环保性能而备受关注。该审查进一步研究了鞋类废物管理的主动和被动方法，同时还探讨了 EoL 鞋类回收面临的挑战。最后，热解被视为一种具有价值的热化学处理过程，因为它具有从消费后的鞋类中回收材料的潜力。本综述论文的重要发现如下： (a) 皮鞋材料在其整个生命周期中对环境的影响最大；(b) 关于热化学过程（特别是热解）作为消费后鞋类废物回收选择的科学文献有限；(c) 消费后鞋类产品的回收面临若干挑战，包括低效的逆向物流、混合产品回收以及难以建立价值回收链。这篇评论文章建议进一步研究热解作为潜在的消费后鞋类回收选择。