Initiative gives old shoes a second life

TORQUAY’s Globe Store has been giving community members the chance to give new life to their old shoes as part of the Save Our Soles Initiative.

The pilot program is run by Australian Sporting Goods Association (ASGA). Participating stores house large cardboard bins, in which people can drop their worn-out shoes for recycling in various ways.

Some shoes are turned into floor and gym matting, others are mixed with tyre rubber from cars and made into anti-fatigue mats.

The Torquay Globe Store is one of the businesses involved in the pilot, and store manager Tom Carroll said people had been quick to embrace the initiative.

“We’ve only had it running for a few weeks and I’ve almost filled my first bin.”

Globe environmental and social responsibility manager Jason Boulter said it was something the company was not only eager to contribute to, but also to encourage others to join.

“It’s very exciting. We’ve got a shoe bin at our reception at our head office in Port Melbourne, and that’s already filled up.

“We’re pretty keen to push some of the bigger shoe brands into it as well, because it’s an industry-wide problem.”

ASGA estimates only one per cent of the 25 million pairs of sports shoes imported to Australia each year will be recycled.

Some components in shoes can take up to 1,000 years to decompose.

Mr Boulter said Globe is now looking to use materials in their shoes that can more readily be recycled.

Rebel Sports’ Waurn Ponds and Geelong stores are also part of the initiative.