Pointe shoes worn by English National Ballet dancers are collected to be repurposed into our pointe shoe tree (c) ASH

Keeping our sustainability on pointe!

Pointe shoes worn by English National Ballet dancers are collected to be repurposed into our pointe shoe tree (c) ASH

21 April 2026

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As Earth Day approaches later this month, we take a closer look at how English National Ballet is working towards a more sustainable future - both on and off the stage.

At English National Ballet we take an open-minded approach to evolving the artform. Part of this is our aim to reduce the impact our work has on the environment. Our Green Team plays a key role in putting this commitment into practice, introducing initiatives that drive real change.

As we celebrate Earth Day on 22 April, English National Ballet First Artist and member of the Green Team, Ashley Coupal, tells us more about our pointe shoe recycling initiative.

“The life of the pointe shoe begins with immense preparation as each dancer customises their shoes with small adjustments and preferences. This could include the kind of ribbons they use, how they sew them, and in terms of sustainability, how to make a shoe which typically softens in a day last as long as possible.

Many of the dancers use shellac or with a special pointe shoe glue to harden the shoe and help each pair last longer. Doing this can make my pointe shoes last as long as a month.

Then comes our pointe shoe recycling system! We remove the ribbons and elastics from our unusable shoes to reuse for our next pair. The old pointe shoes are either used for our iconic pointe shoe tree during our Nutcracker season, or they are placed in our “Drop off Pointe” recycling bin. They are then sent to the First Mile recycling centre where the shoe materials are broken down to be recycled and repurposed.

The cardboard within the shoe is recycled into new products including newspapers and office products. Other parts which are still in good condition might be reused, and the rest of the materials are recycled into stuffing for punching bags, office furniture and anything that would suit this material.”

We recycle 280kg or around 600 pointe shoes in a typical year, which saves approximately 3.8 tonnes of CO2.

Watch the video below to hear First Soloist Julia Conway and First Artist Ashley Coupal talking through the life of a pointe shoe.

 

Putting sustainability into practice

We’ve set ourselves an ambitious target to reach a 70% overall recycling rate in the next five years. Last year, we saved over 6.400g of Co2 last year through our recycling, with over 6,150kg of materials. That means our efforts generated enough power for 24* homes for a whole month!

We manage our food waste through a company that donates 25p to Plan Zheroes for every food waste collection made, which pays to distribute surplus food to local charities and the community.

We are also committed to the Theatre Green Book, a collective initiative by theatre makers to work more sustainably. We took part in the scheme’s original trial and have carried these principles through our work since. We track various data points across our building, operations and productions and work to improve our metrics by changing the way we operate to make us more sustainable.

*Based on the average yearly KwH usage of a medium sized home.

A more sustainable future is something we can all work towards – and with that in mind, we wish a Happy Earth Day!