MIAMI – As we enter plastic free July, we want to sound the alarm about a growing concern.
That concern is the millions of shoes that wind up in landfills every year.
Recent data shows that every year, more than 20 billion shoes are manufactured, and the vast majority of them are eventually thrown away as garbage, but a man from Miami is fighting to change that and already making an impact.
Just after sunset, hundreds stretched and laced up for the weekly Tuesday night Baptist Health Brickell Run Club 5K through the streets of downtown Miami.
Many are making intentional strides to reduce their footprint on the planet, donating their gently worn running shoes to give them a second life.
Frankie Ruiz is the founder of the Brickell Run Club. He’s also the most effective foot soldier for sneaker impact, a movement to upcycle and recycle used running shoes, diverting them from going to a landfill.
“Just like clockwork, every single week we get shoes, because everybody kind of goes through their shoes at a different pace or a different period of time, and we’ll take pretty much any running shoes,” he said. “There (are) runners that go five to eight pairs a year of running shoes, and some even more than that.”
Recent data shows that in the U.S. alone, over 300 million pairs of running shoes are thrown away each year and 95% end up in landfills.
Moe Hachem is the Founder and CEO of Sneaker Impact. His family has been in the used clothing business for decades, but with running shoes, Hachem recognized an urgent need.
“We’re running out of landfills here in South Florida. There is no more,” he said. “So the problem is huge, and 7% of our landfills are textiles and footwear. Those sneakers are not waste. If they’re used once, twice or three times, even a year, they’re not waste. They are a necessity for a lot for people in developing countries.”
Since 2020, Hechem’s been hyper-focused on collecting as many used sneakers as he can to give them new life.
Those that are gently worn are shipped out to developing nations where they can be beautified, repaired and resold at a fraction of their original cost.
“We made them more accessible, more affordable, and above all, shipping the right sneakers to the right market,” said Hachem.
But for shoes that have reached their end of life, Hachem has developed a patented, scalable system to recycle and repurpose them.
Right now, Hachem can grind up to 1,000 pairs of shoes an hour, but what makes this truly a game changer is that his smart machines can also separate and sort the materials.
“We’re grinding the whole shoe, and we’re using air density separation to separate, the foam from the rubber and the textile,” he said.
Materials that, when purely recaptured, can be remanufactured into a brand-new products, and not just shoes.
Hachem has made flooring, tiles and even drink coasters out of the repurposed foam and rubber that were once part of a shoe that otherwise would’ve gone to landfill. Hachem had to get the word out.
“We wanted to tackle and bring awareness to the running industry and Frankie (Ruiz) was the best person (who) would help us tackle that industry,” said Hachem.
For the past five years, Hachem has been working with Ruiz to amplify the mission and engage runners to recycle their shoes.
“Through the run clubs, I’ve been basically coordinating all the collection at the different runs themselves,” said Ruiz.
There are now collection boxes at over 500 retail stores, like Runner’s Depot in Aventura Mall, where shoppers can drop off their old kicks and then buy a new pair.
“Once the box is full, we seal it up and it has a FedEx label,” said Runner’s Depot owner Renee Grant. “They come pick it up and we start with a fresh box.”
The goal is to get everybody to think more consciously about how we dispose of things that no longer serve us.
“Look, we’re a drop in that ocean, but we’re starting the movement, and this is contagious,” said Hachem. “We’re telling people there is an answer. There’s no planet B.”
Sneaker Impact has partnered with California-based companies like Community Made and Blumaka to use the recycled materials to create prototypes for new sneakers, sandals, slides and all kinds of footwear, and big brands are paying attention.