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Recycling old sneakers through a recycling program saves them from ending up in a landfill and allows them to be repurposed for use in creating playgrounds, basketball and tennis courts, and running tracks.

How to recycle old sneakers

Follow these simples steps to help your old footwear find new life.

• Gather all pairs of sneakers (no dress shoes), no matter the brand or style. A word of caution: sneakers containing any metal (such as metal eyelets for laces or metal cleats) cannot be recycled.
• Find a Reuse-A-Shoe sneaker recycling drop-off location near you.
• If there isn't a drop-off location nearby, mail the sneakers (at your own expense) to: Nike Recycling Center, c/o Reuse-A-Shoe, 26755 SW 95th Ave., Wilsonville, OR 97070
• To get your community involved by organizing a sneaker drive in your area, see the National Recycling Coalition guidelines for partnership in the program.

Recycling old sneakers helps you go green because...

• It saves space in a landfill.
• It reduces the amount of CO₂ emitted from incinerating old sneakers.
• The materials from shoe uppers, foam padding, and rubber can be reused in sports' surfaces.

Once the midsole fails to absorb shock, sneakers should be replaced. For the average person, that would mean replacing sneakers every six months.[1] That translates to two pairs of sneakers recycled or donated each year. Whether for basketball, tennis, running, cross-training, skateboarding, or just for style, Americans purchased 361,929 pairs of sneakers in 2004. This was up 4.8 percent from the number of pairs bought in 2003.[2] Of those sneakers, recycling just 70,000 pairs, or about one-fifth of the number sold, would save 500 cubic meters of space in a landfill.[3]

In addition to saving landfill space and reducing the CO₂ emitted from incinerating old sneakers, recycled sneakers can also be used to create sports surfaces. Roughly 75,000 pairs of sneakers contain enough rubber for one running track. It takes only about 5,000 sneakers to create a school playground surface and 2,500 for outdoor basketball and tennis courts.[4] Each year, over 1.3 million pounds of rubber alone has been saved from ending up in a landfill, thanks to sneaker recycling.[5]