Steps of Shoe Recycling

In 2007, Americans bought 2.4 billion pairs of shoes.

That’s pairs of shoes, mind you. Which means that the U.S. consumed nearly half a billion individual shoes in one year. That is literally tons of rubber, foam, and leather. So if we each buy, on average, eight pairs of shoes a year, how many used shoes are thrown away?

Too many. Our landfills are already overtaxed. And although many of us have become conscious about recycling bottles, cans, and paper, when it comes to used shoes we still need to do some serious sole-searching.

The good news is that you have plenty of options when it comes to reusing and recycling your old kicks. Garage sales, online auctions, and clothing drives are good ways to ensure that your shoes won’t take up space at the dump.

Or you can send them to us to recycle.

The first thing E-Cycle will do is determine if your used shoes are reusable. If they are, we’ll donate them to a local nonprofit like Goodwill, who will put them in the hands of those in need. And if your shoes are too worn-down to reuse, we’ll do the recycling for you.

Using reclaimed materials is more cost-effective and energy-efficient than manufacturing new ones. Our first step with your shoes is to separate the rubber from the fabric (although some of you dedicated joggers have already done that for us). Once separated, we then shred the raw materials so that they can be put to other uses.

Some of these materials can be used to make new shoes: the perfect recycling scenario. Others can be used to build surfaces on which you’ll wear out your new sneaks: gym tiling, running tracks made of outsole rubber, playground safety flooring.

So the next time you want to clear your closet of that pile of used shoes, give us a call and we’ll make sure they fall into the right hands—or onto the right feet.