If you’re like me, you probably have at least one really old pair of shoes lying around somewhere. They’re too old/holey/torn up to wear, and yet you cannot find it in your heart to throw them away, discarding all those hours of hard work from child labor in the Philippines. But hearken, there’s a way to recycle your old sneakers!
Good ol’ Nike has set up a shoe recycling program, wherein you turn in your old shoes and they ship them to a processing plant. At the plant, they separate the old shoes into 3 different materials (rubber, foam, and plastic) and grind them up. They’ve recycled more than 21 million pairs of shoes since 1990!
Once they’re ground up, they can be turned into running tracks, new shoes, basketball courts, or even new clothes. That’s a lot better than just throwing away your old shoes to just sit in a landfill for centuries. So take a look around your house, find some old sneakers, find the nearest dropoff location, and recycle your old shoes.
December 21st, 2008 at 6:24 am
Hmm!! Looks interesting!! Has anyone actually researched what happens with these sneakers…? Is all used, some parts burnt or tossed in India/China..? would be great to know more!!
July 27th, 2009 at 11:40 am
awesome post! glad i found your site, it was on accident though =/ check mine out if you want. im still really working on it but it should be great soon
September 1st, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Wow, this is a pretty good post. keep them up and you’ll have a subscriber for life :0
November 13th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Hi!. Thanks for the info. I’ve been digging around looking some info up for shool, but i think i’m getting lost!. Yahoo lead me here – good for you i guess! Keep up the great information. I will be coming back over here in a few days to see if there is any more info.