Nike Reuse-a-Shoe Program is Great for Everyone

What do you do when your shoes are tool old, worn out, no longer fit, and just are not good enough to wear anymore? If you said throw them out then read this to find out how your old sneakers could be kept out of landfills and help children have places to play.

The Nike Reuse-A-Shoe program began in 1993. Nike was searching for an answer to the question "What do you do with worn out shoes?" Nike began collecting both post-consumer, non-metal-containing athletic shoes of any brand, and Nike shoes that are returned due to a material or workmanship flaw. The shoes are taken apart and separated by material - upper fabric, midsole foam, and outsole rubber - then the separated materials are ground up to be reused.

The ground material is called Nike Grind material. Each of the three types of Nike Grind have found second lives as various sporting surfaces. The upper fabric can be used as padding underneath the hardwood floors of basketball courts. The midsole foam can be used in synthetic basketball courts, tennis courts, and in playground surfacing. And the outsole rubber can be reused as golf products, weight room flooring, and running tracks. Nike donates these materials to communities around the world that otherwise would not have access to quality sport's surfaces. The donated sports surfaces, called NikeGO Places, benefit children through promoting physical activity and benefit the environment by diverting thousands of pairs of shoes from landfills.

Nike accepts any brand of athletic shoes to recycle. The only requirements are no shoes containing metal, no cleats, and no dress shoes. They have drop boxes in twenty-two states in the US as well as a nation wide recycling center that you can mail your shoes to.