The Rossignol Group is now sharing the construction and material composition plans for its new Rossignol Essential recyclable ski with all mountain sports industry players to initiate a collective movement. The French company says the goal is to actively contribute to the development of recycling channels in the main ski markets worldwide through technical solutions that can be implemented and shared to facilitate the management of end-of-life products. By sharing the technical specifications of its Essential recyclable ski, manufactured in France, Rossignol aims to give an impetus to the life cycle of skis and winter sports equipment and their recyclability. By 2028, the Rossignol Group expects one-third of its ski range to be part of a circular economy concept.
The design details, technical nomenclature and composition of the Rossignol Essential are freely available on the group’s website since Oct. 18, 2022. The company underlines the importance of initiating a collaborative approach to reduce the environmental impact of its sector collectively.
A shared environmentally responsible innovation
The Rossignol Group is aware of the current issue of recycling skis and winter sports equipment and its responsibilities in this area and is committed to more sustainable production. Conventional skis have a low potential for recycling due to their construction. Therefore, after more than three years of investment in research and development, Rossignol has developed its first ski with a high recycling potential, which at 77 percent is about ten times higher than the average of skis currently produced. To achieve this, the group has collaborated with MTB, a specialist in the field of recycling, which has developed a new method of crushing, sorting, separating and recovering materials through a technological process to better recycle both conventional skis and, above all, the new recyclable Essential skis.
In addition to providing construction plans for its Essential ski, the Rossignol Group encourages the development of specific recycling channels for skis. To this end, a pooling of flows could be considered so that the entire industry can benefit from the Rossignol Group’s advances in recycling and end-of-life recovery of these products. The Rossignol Group hopes that sharing its innovation in the field of recyclable skis will be a first step to then contribute on a global scale to the development of channels and collective recycling initiatives in the different world markets.
In the sports industry, only a few companies have so far made their knowledge regarding more sustainable products or services available as open source. These include Houdini (Mono Air recipe), Keen (PFC-free footwear recipe), Allbirds (carbon footprint calculator) or the TrusTrace Traceability Playbook.
