ASK TRASH QUEEN
QWhat’s the be st w a ytor ecycle old shoes ,if they’r e be yond repair? Are some materials bette rt ha n ot hers? H ow m a nys hoes end up i nl andfill? Is it OK to donate old shoe s or i st hat gross?
AIf you ar e ge tting rid of your old shoes because you don’t like them anymore (not because they are totally worn out) then donating them is definitely not gross !B ut if they ar ebe yond repair, the nt heea r re not too many options open f or s hoe recycling right now. If they don’t look goo de nou ghf or donation or are very broken down, the yw i ll l ikely need to go into the landfill bin.
When lookin ga tn e ws hoes i nt he f uture, try and think about how long the yw i ll l ast. Classic styles, which hav ea leather upper and sol e ca n be resol ed b y ac obble rs evera lt ime sov er before they finally reach t he e nd of their usable life if you look afte rt he mw ell. Y ou m a yp ay a little more up front for a good pai ro f leather-soled shoes ,b ut t hey ca nl ast so much longer if you look after them. Som eb rands also d ot he resoling themselves ,a lthough you may have to post them at your own cost. If we’re talking about running shoes however, that is a totally different challenge. The life o fa sports sho e ca n be e xtended significantly by looking after them, washing the mr egularly, you can iron out creases carefully and rese wsm all tears i nt he upper.
Unfortunately at some point, they do break down if you’r ed oin ga lot of mileage. Running shoe st end to be made of many differe ntm aterials, rubber, nylon etc, which make sr ecycling them difficult ,h oweve rt hei ndividua lp arts of a shoe could keep going around, and be made into new shoes, if there was enough mone yto collec tt hem all up an db reak them down into their compone ntp arts for recycling. Overseas, many of the larger brand ssu cha s Nik e,A llbirds and Adidas offer shoe return/ take back programmes.
Alex Kirkham is a waste specialist. Wondering what to do with waste? Email Alex at sundaymagazine@stuff.co.nz