Living : Shoe Recycling
Shoe Recycling

Shoedunnit

10.05.2009

Submitted by tmeronek on Sun, 10/04/2009 - 11:00pm.
shoes
The Bite:
Is figuring out what to do with your used kicks a total mystery? Here's a clue: Donate your old footwear to a reuse or recycling program to save landfill space or help out someone in need. Nice work, gumshoe.
The Benefits: 
  • You'll create less waste while cleaning out your closet - Reuse-A-Shoe alone has kept more than 23 million pairs of shoes out of the dump.
  • Every pair helps - gently worn shoes can outfit feet in the developing world, while shabby ones can be made into surfacing for things like tennis courts.
Personally Speaking: 
Hanah rips through a pair of workout shoes about every 3 months - but like pretty much any other urban dweller, she's got a Nike store nearby where she can drop 'em off.
Wanna Try: 
  • Nike Reuse-A-Shoe - drop off any brand of ratty athletic shoes, and the company'll grind 'em up into surfaces for playgrounds, tennis courts, and tracks.
  • Soles4Souls - donate used-but-useable pairs to people in developing countries by dropping your shoes off at a nearby drop spot, or shipping them.
  • One World Running - donate near-new athletic shoes to cash-poor sports players.

Cocktail Fact

In August, Burger King apologized to a customer who was kicked out of one of its restaurants because her baby wasn't wearing any shoes.

Bang For The Bite

If 10,000 Biters recycle a pair of shoes, we'll keep enough footwear out of landfills to make the floors for four outdoor basketball courts.

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Kelley Fant  on October 05, 2009 at 04:46 AM 1
We did a Reduce, Reuse, Reshoe event at my sons' school. We collected 16oo pairs of slightly worn shoes. The shoes were given to a local church that will bring them on a misson trip.
Andrea Conover  on October 05, 2009 at 05:02 AM 2
Just last week I brought a shopping bag full of my family's old athletic shoes to my local Nike store. It was so convenient and wonderful to be able to recycle them instead of adding to the landfill. I'm going to write about this in my "green living" column that I write for my local newspaper so we don't put any more old sports shoes into the trash!
Sheila  on October 05, 2009 at 05:10 AM 3
Everyone knows to donate their shoes if they aren't being worn.... but what about the shoes that don't belong in the donating bin? The ones that have holes or totally worn soles? Maybe there should be an article with a search engine to find places that take unusable shoes? I have a bunch, but don't know where to go with them and they are cluttering up my closet! I seriously don't want to throw them in the garbage...
Jonathan  on October 05, 2009 at 07:06 AM 4
For those with "unusable shoes", check out shoeman.org. These shoes help supply Kenyans with water.
Sara  on October 05, 2009 at 11:34 AM 5
Those "unusable shoes" are the perfect thing to send to Nike Reuse-A-Shoe. They take all brands of sneakers and since they get ground up, it doesn't matter what condition they're in. Go to www.nikereuseashoe.com.
Sandra  on October 05, 2009 at 06:04 PM 6
Nothing in Canada? Shocker. Maybe when Nike stops ignoring us I'll buy their shoes.
kevin  on October 11, 2009 at 06:06 AM 7
I was sharing with replica watches who was lucky to own one of these rolex watches. He agreed that they are dream rolex watches and he jokingly let me put the Omega Watches on and asked if I liked how it felt. Afterwards Chanel Watches he asked me if it felt the same as the Cartier Watches I had tried Breitling Watches on at the store and I told him of course. It was then that he revealed to me that what he had on his wrist was a fake watches Air King! I was shocked! It looked and felt just like the replica watches that I had tried on and dreamt about.
wow  on October 11, 2009 at 06:34 AM 8
I was sharing with replica watches who was lucky to own one of these rolex watches. He agreed that they are dream rolex watches and he jokingly let me put the Omega Watches on and asked if I liked how it felt. Afterwards Chanel Watches he asked me if it felt the same as the Cartier Watches I had tried Breitling Watches on at the store and I told him of course. It was then that he revealed to me that what he had on his wrist was a fake watches Air King! I was shocked! It looked and felt just like the replica watches that I had tried on and dreamt about.
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