German undercover investigation reveals that sporting goods giant Nike is destroying new sneakers in a shredding factory in Herenthout. Old shoes that German consumers deposited in the store for recycling would also be destroyed there without further processing.
three German media, Panorama (The First), The time and the journalistic start-up Flip, wanted to know where Nike shoes that consumers leave in stores for recycling actually end up. They posted gps-trackers under the sole to follow the entire trajectory of the shoes. The project, in which several well-known Germans collaborated, was named sneakerjagd (sneaker hunting).
Great was their surprise when it turned out that some sneakers ended up in an anonymous shredding factory in Antwerp’s Herenthout. According to the investigative journalists, this suggests that the old shoes are not recycled, but simply destroyed.
Recycling or destruction?
Nike Germany already had in 2007 announced that worn shoes would be processed in Meerhout, also Belgian. According to the Reuse-a-Shoe program, a recycling plant separates the materials from the shoes and granulates them into residual material that is called “Nike Grind”. All kinds of sports surfaces, such as tennis courts or basketball courts, can be used with this.
However, the GPS tracking did not lead to the recycling factory in Meerhout, but to the destruction factory in Herenthout, say the investigative journalists.
New shoes
An even bigger surprise awaited them on site, because they were able to determine that brand new shoes from the same series were also going through the shredder machines in Herenthout. “We can hardly believe our eyes. Because the shoes that are thrown on the table per box, all look brand new,” say the German journalists who followed the trail as far as Herenthout.
They found indications that in some cases these are items returned by the consumer. It may be shoes that Nike wants to remove from the market to make way for new collections.
Only the filling paper of the new shoes would be removed. For the rest, there is no splitting of the materials, an employee testified. The shoes are shredded in their entirety.
The journalist consortium says it has contacted Nike’s Belgian, German and American press services, but received no answer about how the practices in Herenthout align with the recycling promises and sustainability policy of the sports equipment giant. (mah)
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