Everyone has old shoes that aren't needed anymore. Whether the kids outgrew them or whether the style changed and you want to keep up, you have old shoes that you throw out in the trash. Instead of throwing the shoes out, recycle these old shoes and help the environment. Nike and Retex Northwest (see Resources section) have both taken initiatives to make shoe recycling happen and give old shoes new purposes. With both of these programs, the old shoes create new products and virtually all of the shoe material is reused creating more room in the landfills for products that cannot be recycled.
Nike
The Nike Reuse a Shoe Program started in 1993. Neighborhood drives collect unwanted or worn out shoes from the community. Nike sends a truck to pick up the shoes when a certain number of shoes have been collected. The truck brings the shoes back to Nike where they are ground up to make three high quality materials. They use these materials in a variety of ways, including sports and consumer products.
Reusing Old Shoes
The rubber is used in track and playground surfaces as well as in some consumer products. The foam is used for cushioning outdoor sports courts. The upper fabric of the shoe is used for cushioning indoor sports courts. Nike has two plants that reprocess the shoes, one in the U.S. and one in Belgium. They opened the Belgium plant in 2005. Not only are the shoes recycled but also the process creates jobs both at home and abroad.
Retex Northwest
Retex Northwest provides recycle bins in shopping centers where folks can drop off their shoe donations. Trucks service these bins a few times a week, carrying the used shoes back to the recycle plant for processing. Workers pack the shoes in plastic bags and put the bags in plastic containers. Retex ships these containers overseas to be recycled in other countries by skilled workers. First, the workers go through the items piece by piece and sort the good shoes from the worn out ones. The workers sort wearable shoes according to size, gender and other specifications and then sell them by weight. Workers sort unwearable shoes and send them to buyers who break down the shoes into the original materials. The base material forms the foundations for new shoes and other products.
