Note: Last Day of collection was 30 October 2024

This was a sports shoe donation drive led by Active SG in collaboration with numerous partners including Dow, Alba, Decathlon, and BT Sports. Over 400,000 shoes were collected under this initiative. A total of 125 metric tons of shoes was collected of which approximately 12% (15MT) have been used to date for infrastructure projects including running tracks, fitness corners and playgrounds. 

As stockpiles far outweigh current demand, the Shoe Recycling Project ended its collection in October 2024 and will focus on finding uses for shoes collected.

Sports Shoe Recycling Saga

This programme came under fire in early 2023 when it was discovered that one of the contractors engaged by operators of the programme was diverting shoes donated to sell for profit (that did not go back to the programme). See the report here. 

That contractor has since been removed from the programme and changes to the process change have been made to reduce the risk of theft and leakages. Read more here. 

Generally speaking, we recommend that if sport shoes are suitable for reuse or resale, you should give them to a suitable charity (see recommendations linked to Sports Shoes below). If they are not, then do donate them to this programme.