SINGAPORE: At a warehouse in Tuas, thousands of pairs of donated sneakers, sandals and other footwear have accumulated in a giant pile.
These shoes, collected from people across the country, were meant to be ground into granules and used in projects like running tracks and playgrounds.
But project partners are now facing an uphill battle to find places that want to use them.
The programme – a collaboration between national sports agency Sport Singapore (SportSG) and materials science company Dow – began nearly four years ago with the aim of recycling 170,000 pairs of used sports shoes every year.
More than 400,000 pairs of shoes have been collected in total. But only about 70,000 of them have been repurposed for 18 projects, including a jogging track atop a condominium.
HOPING FOR MORE PARTNERS
Mr Paul Fong, country director of Dow Singapore and Malaysia, told CNA that the shoes will not be donated or sold to other places.
“We really want to reduce the impact to Semakau Island by utilising the shoes instead of discarding and landfilling them. So the main (aim) of the project is to recycle the shoes, and we hope more parties will come forward to partner us,” he said.
The project currently has four other partners – B T Sports, Alba WH, Decathlon and Standard Chartered Bank.
