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There are many different processes for vulcanization, using different chemicals and therefore with different levels of pollution. I could not find easily any remarks about the process being illegal but did see a couple of factories that still do it in Europe
https://tezlashoes.com/about.html
https://www.eurofina.ro/about-us
so I'm inclined to say it's all about the cost of manufacturing that shoes companies don't manufacture in the EU. Vulcanization also requires machinery and chemicals, whereas if you are a small "European footwear manufacturer" you can still order the rubber sole units from China and just sow them on at your factory, making it "manufactured in the EU".
Just like I can order t-shirts made in China, from cotton from Turkey, and print my graphics on and sow some tags and call it "Made in Italy". Oh and how's this for a twist, the factory in Italy is owned and operated by Chinese subcontractor with Chinese employees.
It's a bit sad.
*edit one more https://lakeshoes.es/en/manufacturing/
i had the same trouble finding hard info on this, so this would confirm my guess that it's not literally banned, but just not really feasable to do anymore, probably due to higher worker safety and environmental standards that require a certain factory standard that perhaps almost no one in europe is willing to keep up for the price.
It's extremely likely that this is the case. A lot of developing Asian countries are extremely lax on regulations, both from a safety and an environmental standpoint. To give you an idea, when I went to Shanghai for work, upon landing my lungs actually hurt from the smog. After an hour I guess my body acclimated and it stopped, but it's legitimately as bad or worse than 1970's Los Angeles.
At my old job, if we needed to do product testing and we were running up against our limit for CO2 production for the year, or if we just had a lot of routine testing, we would just have the testing done at our facility in China because they have no limit.
In the factories over there, a kid was blowing shavings out of parts while sitting on the ground wearing sandals, and blowing the air toward his feet. Had to be about 14-16 I would guess. No one over there wore safety glasses, welding face shields, and one guy who was operating a machine to pour aluminum for engine blocks literally reached over to hit a button as the crucible went over his arm. From what I've heard, production in countries that aren't as developed as China (Vietnam, India, Taiwan, etc.) is even worse.
tl:dr, there's no way that factories in the EU or USA could operate like factories do in developing countries, both from a safety and pollution standpoint.
Capitalism would not exist without exploitation on a global scale. ask yourself are you really as a human entitled to "inexpensive products" and all the agony that is embedded in their creation.
FTFY, but you're not wrong. Even when stuff was made here, it was rich people taking advantage of poor people to make the skateboard stuff for them. When labor rates got too high for them to continue to grow their profits for their investors, they went to where there was less regulation so they could pay less for the same thing. We're starting to run out of other countries that are exploitable enough though.
Topic: 2021 unpopular opinion thread (Read 142306 times)