How To Recycle Shoes, Boots & Trainers In The UK

Have your shoes seen better days? Don’t bin them. Instead, here’s how to recycle your worn-out shoes, boots and trainers in the UK to help minimise waste.

Buying ethically made shoes is tricky. Recycling your old shoes correctly can be even trickier. An enigma wrapped in a conundrum, even.

What makes shoes so tricky to buy and recycle at the end of their life is that, unlike your standard cotton t-shirt that’s made entirely of cotton, shoes are made of a wide mix of different materials.

The soles could be made of rubber or plastic. The footbed may be made of some type of latex. Uppers on your shoe, depending on your preference, could be leather, canvas, wool, or PU plastic. Then there are the metal or plastic eyelets or zips. And then there’s the stitching and laces. In short, there’s a lot going on in one pair of shoes.

It’s a recycler’s nightmare, as in order to recycle shoes properly, each component has to be separated. This is no easy job. What’s more, the amount of work involved in separating all these individual components can make it not particularly cost-effective to recycle them. It’s no wonder that so many of our old shoes end up in landfill.

When you consider that globally we buy 24.2 billion pairs of shoes a year, and around 90% of discarded shoes end up in landfills each year, we’re talking about a huge environmental problem. However, once in landfill, our shoes can leach toxic chemicals into the ground and our groundwater.

Want to take the right step? Here are my top tips to help avoid landfill:

How To Recycle Your Old Shoes, Boots & Trainers In The UK

So how do we stop our old shoes from leaving such a gigantic environmental footprint on the planet?

Here are a few steps you can take to first prolong the life of your shoes, and then where to recycle them in the UK for the best environmental outcome:

Mend Your Old Shoes First

Before passing on your shoes for recycling, first, it’s always worthwhile investigating whether your shoes could be mended.

There are many specialist shoe repairers out there – from specialist Birkenstock repair companies to Dr Martens repairers. And then there are the high street cobblers that can work wonders on your old boots or shoes.

Most cobblers and specialist repair centres will give you a free upfront repair cost before you decide to commit to the repair. This means there are no surprises when you come to collect your shoes.

Repair costs can be cheaper than you think. Here in Edinburgh, a new heel costs in the region of £15, whilst new soles cost around £20 to £30.

I had one pair of boots repaired three times before the cobbler and I decided that the boots were eventually beyond salvageable. This extended their life by years. It’s amazing what miracles can be worked by skilled cobblers – even if you think your shoes are past the point of no return.

Sell Or Donate Good Quality Shoes

If shoes you no longer want are still in good condition, then it is always better to sell or donate good-quality pairs rather than try to recycle them.

There are a host of sites where you can sell your preloved shoes and clothes online. Alternatively, charity shops will accept shoes in good resellable condition. Give them a little clean before passing them on, and the shoes you no longer want could be someone else’s treasure.

The only exception is children’s shoes. Some charity shops – including the British Red Cross – won’t accept used kids’ shoes (except from wellies and flip flops) as they say that wear can affect the fit of the shoe. 

Recycle Your Shoes At Schuh

Alternatively, Schuh’s Sell Your Soles scheme is another good way to recycle your shoes. Simply take any old shoes to your nearest Schuh store. For each pair you hand in for recycling, Schuh will give you a voucher for £5 off a new pair of full-priced shoes costing £25 or more.

What’s especially great is that Schuh will accept any type of shoes and any make or brand for recycling. This is regardless of whether they were purchased in Schuh or not.

The only caveat is that the shoes are in good condition. Schuh is unable to accept any shoes that have been damaged, torn or ripped beyond repair. It’s also not able to accept any shoes that are burnt, mouldy, damp, or wet, or those soiled with paint or oil.

Schuh has partnered with Got Sneakers to deliver its recycling scheme. All shoes handed in for recycling head to the Got Sneakers Liverpool depot, where they go through an intensive sorting and cleaning process.

Selected shoes are then sold online in the UK, EU and US – with Got Sneakers trying to ensure that 98% of all donated footwear is resold. Any shoes that can’t be sold is shipped to Fast Feet Grinded (FFG), a Dutch organisation that grounds old shoes into pellets that are used to make playground and sports surfaces.

Schuh’s long-term aim is to use the pellets to make recycled materials for new footwear and in-store fixtures, but it’s not there yet.

As well as keeping old shoes out of landfill, for every tonne of footwear collected by Schuh, it uses all of the generated revenue to support its sustainability partner – World Land Trust. This is a charity that works around the world to save and protect critically threatened wildlife habitats.

Like this idea? I’ve also put together a blog post on what other things you can recycle for money (or store credit).

Recycle Shoes At Clarks

High street shoe retailer Clarks also runs a shoe recycling scheme called ShoeShare. Bear in mind, though, that not all stores take part in ShoeShare. Clarks encourages customers to call ahead or check in-store before bringing in their old shoes for donation.

Clark’s shoe recycling scheme is run by Recyclatex. This trading organisation was formed by several textile reuse and recycling companies who are experts in collection, logistics and identifying value in used clothing and shoes. Recyclatex then passes the sorted shoes on to shoe recyclers in the Global South. Here, Recyclatex says as much as 98% of all shoes can be recycled.

Like Schuh, Clark’s will accept any type of shoes and any make or brand for recycling.

For every tonne of shoes received, a donation is made to UNICEF – the United Nations Children’s Fund. This money raised supports UNICEF’s education programmes around the world.

Send Old Running Shoes To JogOn

If you have old running shoes that are no good for running in anymore, but are still good to wear, then consider sending them to JogOn.

This organisation takes old running shoes and distributes them via charities to those who need shoes. In the UK, JogOn has helped make sure school children can keep enjoying sport both in lessons and after school by giving them the trainers they need.

Shoe Banks

If you don’t live near any of these High St stores, or your shoes aren’t running shoes, then the only other option that I’ve found is the shoe banks that you often find in Council recycling centres and some supermarket car parks.

What happens to the shoes then depends on who collects them. Some may end up in charity shops, but I suspect most end up exported abroad to the Global South for sorting and recycling.

What To Do With Welly Boots

If you’ve got an old pair of welly boots, then these are treated a bit differently to regular shoes and boots. See my guide to upcycling and recycling welly boots for how to pass these on sustainably.

Things You Can Do To Share The Load

Not all of these schemes are in any way perfect. The Global South is overrun with our old clothes and shoes, to the detriment of people’s health, the environment, and traditional economies. And not every pair of shoes will get recycled.

Hopefully, in the future, we will see more recycling schemes, like Schuh’s, that will help to alleviate that unfair burden.

In the meantime, we can help. We can buy fewer shoes, and we can take good care of them so that our footwear leaves less of a footprint on both people and the planet. You can also encourage your favourite shoe retailers to look into shoe recycling schemes to help make shoe recycling easier for everyone.

Where To Buy Sustainable Footwear

And need to replace your old footwear? Try my ethical shoe guides:

• Guide to ethical and sustainable shoes
• Guide to vegan shoes
• Guide to recycled shoes
• Guide to ethical and sustainable trainers
• Wildling shoes review