Photo courtesy of Nikereuseashoe.com Just last year, Americans discarded more than 300 million pairs of shoes. When these shoes break down in our landfills, the toxic glue that holds the shoes together can leak into our water supply and atmosphere. Old athletic shoes might not be at the top of your recycling list, but did you know that even these can be recycled? The rubber soles of 75,000 pairs of sneakers can create an entire running track, and the foam from the same shoes can be turned into the springy surface of three tennis courts! While it might be harder to find places to recycle your shoes, it's worth it to keep millions of pairs out of our landfills.
Worn-out athletic shoes - of any brand - can be turned in at a Nike store or another Nike collection site. (The closest collection site is at the Nike Factory Store in Calhoun, Ga.) Nike's Reuse-a-Shoe program recycles the rubber, foam, and fabric from more than 24 million pairs of shoes. This recycled material is turned into various types of surfacing, including tennis courts, tracks, athletic fields, and children's playgrounds.
If you're getting rid of wearable shoes that have just gone out of style, you have more options. Local thrift stores will often re-sell the shoes, raising money for their charities AND keeping the shoes out of the landfill. In addition, Shoes 4 Orphan Souls (http://www.soles4soles.org/) cleans up unwanted shoes and ships them to needy people around the world. The group facilitates donations from organizations and individuals and has distributed more than 4 million pairs of shoes to people in 125 different countries.
Most of our closets are full of shoes we rarely wear. The next time you decide to clean these out, think twice before you throw them away! We can change the world, one pair at a time!
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