The day-long event on Saturday, November 1st, will launch Landmine Action Week. Members of the public are asked to bring along pairs of shoes to contribute to the pyramid next to Nelson's Column and show their opposition to landmines. Each pair of shoes will symbolise a person injured by landmines and other remnants of war. Organisers Handicap International have run similar events all over the world, but this is the first such event in the UK.
Headaches
Shoe recycling has been a source of headaches for the traditional UK textiles industry in recent years after new companies began installing shoe-only bring banks across the UK several years ago. But this event may help to raise awareness that shoes can also be donated in mixed textile banks.
Michelle Barry of Lawrence M Barry (LMB) said: “We are taking part to support a good cause and educate members of the public about shoe recycling. There's a great need for shoes for export markets, but a lot of people forget that you can put shoes into a textile bank. “But shoes can be exported to places such as Africa, India and Russia and re-worn.”
The event will start at 10am and carry on until 5.30pm. LMB will also have a colourful extra-large shoe bring bank and Shoe Friends exhibition at the event.
Message
LMB processes 15 tonnes of shoes every week and of those, 12.5 tonnes are fit for export. Ms Barry said one other message the company wanted to get across to the public was that shoes must be tied together in pairs. “Our biggest problem is single shoes. If people paired their shoes up we could double the amount we recycle,” she said.
LMB will start the pyramid off with three tonnes of shoes donated through its primary schools education project, Shoe Friends. At the end of the day, the company will buy the shoes back from Handicap International and pay double its normal rate for the rest of the shoes donated by the public on the day.
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