December 24, 2008
Nike's Reuse-A-Shoe Program
Nike's Reuse-A-Shoe program started in 1993, when they began collecting both post-consumer, non-metal-containing athletic shoes of any brand, and Nike shoes that were returned due to defects. Nike separates the shoes into three distinct types of material: upper fabric, midsole foam, and outsole rubber. After grinding them up, they use the processed material to make new sports surfaces, like soccer and football fields, basketball and tennis courts, tracks, and playground surfacing. In addition, they use recycled materials from the Nike contract factories located in China, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Many of the sports surfaces are donated in communities that wouldn't otherwise have access to high-performance sports surfaces. The enviroment benefits as well, as thousands of pairs of athletic shoe material are diverted from landfills.
Read more at Nikebiz.com.
Posted by Jeffrey at 11:48 AM