Shoe Friends works in partnership with local authorities to offer primary schools within Greater London the opportunity to recycle shoes. The scheme runs an introductory assembly to the pupils, explaining shoe recycling, when a school joins the programme.
Michelle Barry, group marketing manager and group coordinator for Textile reprocessor Lawrence M Barry and Co (LMB), is visiting the schools predominantly in Enfield. This will be followed by visits to schools in Haringey, Redbridge and Dagenham and Barking in the following months. At present Shoe Friends is working with over 100 schools across the Greater London area.
The scheme was started as part of an awareness campaign run by LMB in an attempt to explain to people how to properly recycle shoes, increasing the number of shoes collected and the amount of those shoes that could be reused. Ms Barry told letsrecycle.com that many of the shoes collected from bring banks were useless because they weren’t paired up, and due to the size of the companies sorting equipment this meant that they weren’t used.
 LMB driver Eddie Pack with school children from London |
Schools are given a free collection bin and sacks, suitable to store within a classroom or in a corridor. Shoe Friends then encourages the children, teachers and parents to bring their shoes and place them in the recycling bin, which is fitted with a sack capable of holding 25 kilos.
The organisation provides schools with posters and information leaflets about the collection of shoes. They also provide a free follow-up recycling workshop where the children learn about the difference between recycling and reuse.
Local authority
It is the school rather than the local authority that receives payment for the shoes on the scheme, but the local authority can receive recycling credits.
Ms Barry explained: “We are teaching children about recycling and getting them involved in the collection process. It means local authorities are still able to claim the recycling credits, but the children feel as though they are more involved.
“When the school has at least three full sacks we collect them and the school receives the money. So far this has been around 2 a sack, in line with what we would pay a local authority, but we have plans to increase this to around 5 a sack around Christmas time. The shoes we receive from schools are 100% useable because they are kept in pairs so we feel we should give them a little bit extra,” she said.
Around 60% of the shoes collected by Shoe Friends go to Uganda, but the rest of Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia also benefit. Ms Barry said that Pakistan receives most of the roller skates collected through the organisation.
LMB is contracted to approximately 25 local authorities throughout London and divert between 170 and 200 tonnes of shoes and textiles from landfill each week.
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