How to recycle shoes

One of the difficulties of downsizing our possessions can be the regret of sending things to landfill.

Fortunately more and more solutions are becoming available so that unwanted possessions can have a second life.

Today I'm looking at shoes. If they are still wearable you can sell them - or give them to a friend. But sometimes they've just reached the end of their usefulness - as happened to my blue sneakers.

I'd got every last bit of use out of them and was thinking they'd be going in the bin. Then I found out about the clunkily-named ASGASOS initiative.

What can be recycled?

Basically sports-shoes. Sneakers, trainers, runners, football boots, and thongs. Sadly no business shoes or workboots. See the full list.

What happens to them?

The shoes are broken down and the usable components (rubber, leather and fibres) are extracted to make new products including gym mats, floors and playgrounds.

Where can shoes be recycled?

I took mine to a JD store, but several retailers are also involved. Here's the full list and a map.

Other things that can be recycled

The brilliant new way to downsize clothing

How to recycle CDs and DVDs

What to do with 128 pens?

Comments

Don't dump on charities

Netflix causes mass dumping. Here's an alternative. January is usually a big month for physical donations to charity. In 2019 it's been over-the-top (literally) as charity donation bins have been overflowing with items. The Netflix series "Tidying Up" by famous declutterer Marie Kondo (see her book ) has inspired many to declutter their homes. But in the process they've cluttered the streets. What's so bad about donating? When the bins overflow the extra items are thrown away. Having been in the weather, the rain and on the ground, they are classified as contaminated and cannot be sold. To make it worse, much of what fills the bins is not good enough to sell, and is also dumped. Bad donations hurt charities 13 million dollars. That's how much it costs charities to deal with all the junk we dump on them - 60,000 tonnes a year. Lifeline says half its stores have stopped accepting donations. We might think we're helping, but that's a lot ...

You know what to do. Ignore this ad!

Yes, jewellery stores pump out the ads around valentine's day - that's no surprise. After all it's a made-up day designed to sell more stuff at higher prices. But this year they seem extra desperate to sell stuff we don't want, with the "You know what to do" campaign. I reckon the sales team are scared by the number of couples that have realised that love is not in physical merchandise but in quality time. So they've made an ad exactly about these people. The message seems to be aimed straight at guys to say "even if you and your partner agree not to waste money on jewellery, you should buy her some anyway". Apparently in a relationship it's important to ignore what your wife or partner says and do what profit-motivated corporations tell you to do. I tend to disagree. If you're interested have a look - it's interesting to see how transparent it is.

Why millionaires don't "feel" rich

We're wealthier than ever - so why don't we feel like it? Australia has gone almost three decades without recession. The stock market recently hit a record high. Our wages are record highs. Home loan rates are at record lows. We live in one of the richest countries in the world at the richest point in history. So what's wrong? Comparison Wealth is relative. So what do we compare to? Where we expect to be? "When your wages growth is only 2 or 3 per cent, you don't feel as well-off as when it's going up 10 per cent. That's that nominal distortion that people often suffer from" , says economist Shane Oliver, and that "expectations have grown a lot faster than reality." We're earning more than last year, but we want even more. So compared to our imaginary situation, we see ourselves as worse off. What we see around us? Shane Oliver again. "If you think about it - Australians today are a lot wealthier. They're living far ric...

But wait... there's less!

Search This Blog