Did you know that the average person will buy 1-2 pairs of running shoes a year? If you use the population in Ontario only (~12M), that equates to almost 24M shoes a year! Also, it takes about 1000 years for a running shoe to biodegrade. Nike has come up with a great recycling program where each part of the running shoe is recycled to create sports surfaces such as running tracks, tennis courts, basketball courts, etc etc. Check out their website:
http://www.nikereuseashoe.com/ There is only one location in Canada at the moment that does this, hopefully more will be added this year!
If you were wondering, why not make a shoe that will biodegrade a little faster? Brooks has done just that by creating “The Green Silence”. This shoe will biodegrade in 20 years instead of 1000.
