Give Your Old Shoes New Life: How to Recycle Sneakers

This article will help you learn how to recycle your running shoes.
Team Sneakers4Good

The global consumption rate has skyrocketed in the past few decades. And as consumption increases, so does waste. The average American will produce nearly five pounds of garbage daily, adding up to a national average of 292.4 million tons of solid waste yearly.

Because sneakers are one of the most popular types of footwear, they make up a large portion of the shoes that get thrown away.

Luckily, there are ways to part with your old running shoes responsibly. In this guide, we’ll answer why recycling running shoes is so important and how you can give your sneakers new life by covering these specific questions:

Rest assured, sneakers are recyclable. But, it can be hard to grasp the idea because the process differs from the way people typically think about recycling. In the following sections, let’s discuss why and how you can recycle running shoes in the next sections!

Can You Recycle Running Shoes?

Short answer: yes. Recycling sneakers is a great way to keep them in circulation and out of landfills. But, because shoes are made of different materials such as rubber or synthetic fibers, they can’t just be thrown into the recycling bin.

Instead, you can resell, repurpose, or partner with a sneaker recycling program to give your running shoes a new life. Let’s break down each:

  • Resell your running shoes through consignment shops, online platforms, or direct transitions. Just be sure your sneakers are in good condition before you put them up for sale.
  • Repurpose your running shoes by transforming or adapting them for another use outside their original purpose. This could look like using heels for coat racks or repurposing sneakers for other decorative means.
  • Recycle your sneakers by partnering with a sneaker recycling program where you can trade your gently worn, used and new sneakers and running shoes to a sustainable program that will get your shoes into the hands of people who need them most, all while exchanging funds for your sneakers!

Recycling your sneakers can be incredibly easy, especially if you partner with a social enterprise facilitator like Sneakers4Good to handle the logistics. Their dedicated customer experience team has helped organizations nationwide recycle running shoes and raise money as a result!

Click here to recycle your running shoes with Sneakers4Good.

Why Does Recycling Running Shoes Matter?

It’s possible to recycle running shoes—so what? What’s the harm in not recycling shoes and simply tossing them away? Besides missing out on potential funds, recycled shoes can make a big difference in:

  • Reducing waste sent to landfills. As consumption increases, landfills become crowded and pollute clean air and water. Before sending sneakers (and any other waste) to the landfill, consider whether someone else could use them or if you can find a creative way to reuse them. Recycling your athletic shoes means less waste goes to landfills, where it will sit for decades before decomposing.
  • Conserving energy and natural resources. Collecting and refining brand-new raw materials requires far more energy than to reuse existing materials. For example, recycled shoes can provide natural materials like rubber, so manufacturers don’t have to source them from natural resources. By reducing the need to mine or extract these resources, you can help protect natural habitats that are often polluted or destroyed.
  • Promoting sustainable awareness and practices. When individuals, nonprofit organizations, and schools practice sustainable living, it promotes awareness that can positively impact cultural norms. Additionally, brands that engage in recycling can promote environmentally conscious spending habits.
  • Creating jobs and strengthening the economy. Recycling creates roughly nine times more jobs than the garbage industry, leading to more economic growth. These jobs include a variety of roles, ranging from drivers to sorters to facility managers. Recycling can also provide recovered materials to manufacturers at a lower cost, further supporting the economy by increasing their profit margins.

With all the benefits of recycling your athletic shoes, there’s no reason to toss them in the trash—especially when recycling is so easy!

How Can You Recycle Running Shoes?

Ready to get started recycling your athletic footwear? Check out our list of the top places or partners you can rely on for sustainable repurposing.

Sneakers4Good

Skip the landfill and recycle your running sneakers with Sneakers4Good! With their help, you can repurpose your sneakers to support micro-enterprises in developing countries. Owned and operated by one to two individuals, microenterprises enable working-age adults to create their own opportunities by selling the athletic shoes you send.

Through its innovative repurposing program, Sneakers4Good can help you sidestep complicated recycling center processes and earn money for your conscientious habits. Here’s how it works:

This image describes the process of how to recycle running shoes which are described in the text below.

  1. Contact Sneakers4Good
  2. Collect gently worn, used and new athletic shoes from your community
  3. Ship the shoes in pre-paid shipping bags
  4. Receive a check issued for athletic shoes

Sneakers4Good’s team will guide you through the process with informative how-to videos, top tips, and amazing customer service. The more sneakers you send, the more money you can raise for your organization. 

Although this may seem too good to be true, your recycled athletic shoes enable individuals in developing countries to get ahead through a hand-up, not a hand-out. That means they clean and resell the shoes to their communities while you can raise funds. It’s a win-win! 

Whether you’re a running shoe retailer, nonprofit organization, school, or individual, Sneakers4Good’s experienced recycling team can help you raise funds for a cause that matters to you. From corporate social responsibility to community fundraising, your recycled running shoes will be put to good use!

Click here to recycle your running shoes with Sneakers4Good.

Funds2Orgs

As the nation’s largest shoe drive fundraising company, Funds2Orgs is an effective fundraising provider that has helped individuals, schools, nonprofits, and other organizations raise money by repurposing shoes. The process is similar to Sneakers4Good, as the collected shoes are shipped to developing countries where they are repurposed to support growing micro-enterprises.

Funds2Orgs also provides detailed fundraising resources and a dedicated fundraising coach team to get you up and running and walk you through the process. Their free How-To videos and weekly email tips will help you spread the word and track your fundraising goals from start to finish. Check out the Funds2Orgs website for more information on how to get started.

TerraCycle

Another great recycling option, TerraCycle is a privately owned company that recycles multiple items as the world’s first solution in everything from recycling to reuse. That means they are a reliable resource if you’re interested in recycling other gently used items.

To begin your shoe recycling process, head to their website, purchase the associated shoe collection box, collect your shoes, pack them up in the zero waste box, and ship them to TerraCycle. Keep in mind that their zero-waste box is more expensive due to its inclusion of transportation, recycling, and processing fees being all rolled into one.

Terracycle will then find buyers for leather shoe parts which then be transformed into flooring or furniture and plastic parts are repurposed into soundproofing materials, containers, and more.

Share Your Soles

The nonprofit Share Your Soles has distributed millions of gently worn shoes across the globe targeting disproportionately impoverished areas. The motto “We can’t walk in their shoes, let them walk in ours” drives them to collect gently worn shoes for communities in need.

Specifically, Share Your Souls focuses on the necessity of donated shoes for others to experience safe transportation, health insurance, and opportunity. And, since 1999 they’ve distributed five million pairs of shoes to over twenty countries to realize this mission. View their website for more information on the types of shoes they collect and to find a drop-off location closest to you.

Donate This Recycle That

Donate This Recycle That makes doing good easy by providing a way to donate your gently used clothing and household items. In exchange for donations, they enable you to raise money for a worthy cause.

With donation boxes throughout the southeast, you can easily drop off clothing, accessories, home goods, and other textiles. These items are then used to support worthy charities such as AMVETS National Service Foundation or The National Children’s Cancer Society, where they are sold by charities to produce unrestricted revenue streams.

Besides partnering with a sneaker recycling program, you can leverage in your quest to live more sustainably. For instance, you can prioritize buying brands that repurpose their shoes, such as Nike or Teva. These companies have their own recycling partnerships and processes that you can count on.

A Final Note About Recycling Running Shoes

Recycling running shoes is incredibly beneficial for the environment and for communities in need. Your gently used shoes represent essential opportunities for those in need and can drastically cut down CO2 emissions.

Whether you’re a gym, school, running club, or organization, you can partner with a shoe recycling provider and give your old shoes a new life. For more information about how to get started, contact Sneakers4Good’s team.

If you want to learn how you can live more sustainably, check out these resources:

Click here to recycle your running shoes with Sneakers4Good.

Shoe Lace

SMART. SIMPLE. SUSTAINABLE.

When you partner with Sneakers4Good, not only are you being social responsible and helping to keep sneakers out of landfills, but you provide innovative opportunities to families in developing countries all over the world through micro-enterprise.
Sneakers 4 Fun is now Sneaks 4 Good

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