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Dow said it was recycling our shoes. We found them at an Indonesian flea market

reuters.com

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Re: Dow said it was recycling our shoes. We found them at an Indonesian flea market

#11

Post by peyton »

driggs wrote: post #9
uberman wrote: post #2

I kind of see where the "outrage" might come from in the lead as apparently they promised that the shoes were going to be recycled. However, the mantra is "reduce reuse recycle". Clearly it is better in the save the planet sense that perfectly good shoes were reused rather than destroyed for playground padding. I'm a liberal in general but this kind of false outrage makes us look foolish.

I came here to post the exact same sentiment and the ordered phrase "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle". Yes, it's bad that this was advertised as a specific recycling program and involved parties knowingly or unknowingly diverged from that stated plan. But from a global resource consumption perspective, it's far preferable to re-use good shoes (which also reduces the production of new shoes) than to recycle them for recovered…

I think lying about the fate of these shoes is pretty bad and destroys trust. I’d think twice about recycling. “Here’s why that’s a good thing!” doesn’t cut it for me.

Re: Dow said it was recycling our shoes. We found them at an Indonesian flea market

#12

Post by baron816 »

uberman wrote: post #2

I kind of see where the "outrage" might come from in the lead as apparently they promised that the shoes were going to be recycled. However, the mantra is "reduce reuse recycle". Clearly it is better in the save the planet sense that perfectly good shoes were reused rather than destroyed for playground padding. I'm a liberal in general but this kind of false outrage makes us look foolish.

I guess it was plastics companies like Dow that convince us that recycling was just as good. I have frequently encountered the attitude of "these single use plastics are ok to use since we can just recycle them". Even under ideal circumstances, recycling uses a lot of energy.

Re: Dow said it was recycling our shoes. We found them at an Indonesian flea market

#13

Post by throw_away1525 »

My city has a waste to energy plant. Anything I put in the waste bin gets burned, and the energy is used to generate power or heat for the city.

I have a hell of a time convincing my wife that we ought to just chuck all plastics into the waste rather than stick them in the recycling bin, since only God knows where the plastics in the recycling bin end up. Maybe they get recycled, maybe they get dumped onto a smoldering trash mountain in Turkey or maybe they end up floating down the Yangtze. Even if they do get recycled into a fleece sweater or whatever, given what we know about microplastic shedding, do we really want that? Just burn the shit and recover the energy, I say.

Re: Dow said it was recycling our shoes. We found them at an Indonesian flea market

#15

Post by Cthulhu_ »

uberman wrote: post #2

I kind of see where the "outrage" might come from in the lead as apparently they promised that the shoes were going to be recycled. However, the mantra is "reduce reuse recycle". Clearly it is better in the save the planet sense that perfectly good shoes were reused rather than destroyed for playground padding. I'm a liberal in general but this kind of false outrage makes us look foolish.

I wonder if they hid the fact that good enough shoes would be reused because some people don't want that to happen.

Re: Dow said it was recycling our shoes. We found them at an Indonesian flea market

#16

Post by Cthulhu_ »

rr808 wrote: post #7

Genuinely expected the answer to be Indonesian rubbish dump.

Well they don't say what happens to the shoes that are in bad condition, I think for completeness' sake they should do the same with tatty and worn out shoes. The trackers would likely get shredded then though.

I think this is only half the story. Why would they shred up perfectly serviceable shoes when they can make money off of selling them?

Re: Dow said it was recycling our shoes. We found them at an Indonesian flea market

#17

Post by settrans »

throw_away1525 wrote: post #13

My city has a waste to energy plant. Anything I put in the waste bin gets burned, and the energy is used to generate power or heat for the city. I have a hell of a time convincing my wife that we ought to just chuck all plastics into the waste rather than stick them in the recycling bin, since only God knows where the plastics in the recycling bin end up. Maybe they get recycled, maybe they get dumped onto a smolderi…

Indeed this is HWFO's core thesis: https://hwfo.substack.com/p/an-illustrated-guide-to-plastic-...

Re: Dow said it was recycling our shoes. We found them at an Indonesian flea market

#19

Post by brookst »

peyton wrote: post #11
driggs wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I came here to post the exact same sentiment and the ordered phrase "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle". Yes, it's bad that this was advertised as a specific recycling program and involved parties knowingly or unknowingly diverged from that stated plan. But from a global resource consumption perspective, it's far preferable to re-use good shoes (which also reduces the production of new shoes) than to recycle them for recovered…

I think lying about the fate of these shoes is pretty bad and destroys trust. I’d think twice about recycling. “Here’s why that’s a good thing!” doesn’t cut it for me.

Are you saying you’d be more likely to throw things away than recycle them because it’s possible that rather than being recycled they will be reused?

Re: Dow said it was recycling our shoes. We found them at an Indonesian flea market

#20

Post by 7speter »

LawTalkingGuy wrote: post #6
uberman wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is the thing though. If all the perfectly good pairs of shoes were destroyed, the reported might have wrote an equally aggrieved piece about the shameful way these perfectly good shoes were not reused. Seems like they set up a strawman ready to be outraged no matter what Dow did.

Shipping western clothing to poor countries tends to destroy local industry. I prefer to be able to make my own choices, not have people lie to be and then do whatever they feel is cheaper. They have to pay to properly recycle, but can just sell the old shoes. This is fraud, pure and simple. They asked for the donations of shoes under false pretenses. (There's a chance it was whatever firm they paid - but then they'r…

Huh? Western clothing is normally what poor country industry is made of, or at least a significant part is.
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