Not sure what to do with your old shoes? They could soon see a new lease of life through the NTU Shoe Recycling Drive. An initiative by statutory board Sport SG and American science corporation Dow, used shoes are deposited in designated bins and recycled into building materials for running tracks and playgrounds.
To facilitate this plan in Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Earthlink NTU and NTU Civil and Environmental Engineering Club (CEE Club) have collaborated with Dow Chemical Singapore Pte Ltd to launch the NTU Shoe Recycling Drive. First started on 1 August 2021 in NTU, this collection drive is available permanently.
The Highlights
Bins placed in convenient areas.
Unlike the usual green bins, the bins for the specific initiative have orange lids and a physical signage detailing the drive’s aims. Bins were placed in the North Spine and the South Spine, which generally has high footfall. A third bin was also moved into the Sports and Recreation Centre, where most fitness-oriented students and staff frequent. Placing the bins in convenient locations would help to encourage more people to bring their used shoes for disposal and prevent them from being wasted.
Doing its part to reduce waste in the environment.
As running tracks and playgrounds continue to be built in Singapore, more materials must be sourced from the Earth’s already limited resources. These recycled shoes will help to reduce the amount of raw material that is required. In addition, recycling the rubber soles of shoes also means that less rubber gets disposed of and incinerated, reducing the amount of generated waste – and extending the lifespan of Singapore’s only landfill, Pulau Semakau.
The Memories
Reflection #1 – The Challenges
Only specific types of shoes are accepted.
The drive focuses on sports shoes and boots without studs, as the rubber soles make up the materials needed for the tracks and playgrounds. According to Today Online, the soles and midsoles of the collected pairs will be grounded into rubber granules, which will then be used to create the tracks and playgrounds. The NTU bins will be calculated with a nationwide tally, which currently aims to recycle 170,000 pairs of used shoes each year. An earlier project from September to November in 2020, collected more than 75,000 pairs of shoes and this equates to about 3.3km of jogging track built.
Waste may be wrongly disposed into the collection bins.
As the bins are not manned, it is the responsibility of the NTU community to place only their used shoes into the bins. However, some may still carelessly dispose of waste or the wrong kinds of shoes into the bins. To mitigate it, notices with information on the drive were placed to each bin to deter wrongful trash disposal.
Individuals may forget about the initiative.
The initiative is open permanently and as shoes are not a common item to be thrown away, people may forget that this initiative exists. Moreover, not everyone frequents the North Spine, South Spine and Sports and Recreation Centre, where the bins are placed, so they may not be aware or remember that this drive is ongoing. Earthlink and CEE Club have advertised it on their social media platforms and will continue to send out periodic reminders to encourage the community to donate their shoes.
Reflection #2 – The Takeaways
Even shoes can gain a new lease of life.
While the usual items like paper and plastic gets recycled often, composite objects like shoes, which are made of different materials, tend to be more challenging to break down. This initiative – brought to the community through student clubs and environmentally conscious organisations – shows that there can still be use for one’s favourite pair of kicks long after they are worn down.
Everyone has a part to play in environment sustainability.
This project hopes to give people the chance to play their part in promoting environmental sustainability. While one pair of shoes may not seem like much, the combination of all donated shoes can go a long way towards creating a more sustainable society. The clubs also noted that collaboration and cooperation with one another are two factors to make any project successful.
Earthlink NTU
NTU Civil and Environmental Engineering Club
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