A first in the history of indoor climbing, ArtLine is marketing recyclable and recycled holds!
A green sport, but a dirty industry
Indoor climbing has its roots in nature, and this is reflected in the ecological awareness of even the most urban climbers. Despite this, climbing holds are made from thermosetting plastic, which has a horrendous environmental impact.
To give you an idea, 1 kg of polyurethane holds emits 11.84 kg of C02. In other words, one hold = a 50 to 100 km journey in a petrol-driven car. In addition, there is currently no process for disposing of them. For the most part, they are thrown in the skip and either buried or incinerated.
We estimate that 7 million end-of-life holds are thrown away every year.
Ghold has the golden ticket !
Ghold was founded in 2021 by 3 young climbers: Hugo, Sébastien and Benoit. Having just qualified and with the support of the Savoie Technolac incubator, they embarked on 3 years of research to develop a bold process using recyclable thermoplastic injection moulding. Thanks to their infectious energy, they succeeded in raising the necessary capital to industrialise their process.
Their solution makes it possible to produce holds from recycled materials, as well as to recycle them again at the end of their lifespan. Once collected, the holds are sorted, crushed and recycled into future generations of holds. All without affecting the quality of the grain or the durability of the product. In terms of safety, their holds meet standard EN 12572-3.
Their path crosses Artline's
As we are concerned about our environmental impact and looking for new technologies to invent the climbing of tomorrow, we naturally decided to transfer part of our production to Ghold, starting with our best-seller, the Mercy holds, in smaller sizes: S to L.
The holds that Ghold manufactures can be recycled up to 10 times. They can be identified by a logo on the side of the hold. A QR code on the back ensures traceability. Holds are returned by simply scanning the QR code and printing out a free return slip. This system will be in operation from December 2023.
Comments
Suprised this has gone under the UKC radar.. didn’t realize all the plastic climbing holds we are currently climbing on aren’t recyclable!
Kudos to these guys for tackling the problem
It is a bit of a green wash selling point though. Holds last a long time, thousands of uses. Translate the km driven per hold figure into km driven per use and it might be more realistic.
How much energy is required to reprocess each hold?
Will the company still be around in 25 years when the first batch are ready for reprocessing?
For really green holds, drill stones or use wood.
I read this as:
GEAR NEWS: Shaped To Be Recycled By Airline Holds
I thought it would be about baggage handlers damaging climbing gear.
There’s a statement on sustainability on the Beastmaker site: https://www.beastmaker.co.uk/pages/sustainability
Why so cynical!? Jeez, someone comes along with an attempt to changes things just a little bit for the better.
Doesn't matter if you calculate km per hold or km per use, it just scales the metric differently. However, the former is very easy and transparent to calculate, whereas the latter is almost impossible.
PU holds don't last more than a handful of years (these guys claim 1-2 years), so not sure why you're assuming they'll be waiting 25 years for the the first batch.