Just imagine: you donate used pairs of sneakers to a company that promises to use the material to build running tracks and playgrounds for children. Then, some time later, it is discovered that the same shoes are for sale in used markets in Indonesia! It was this phenomenon of globalization that the reporter Joe Brockyes Archyde.comfound.
The company in question is the American manufacturer of petrochemicals Dow, which produces raw material for the manufacture of sneakers. The industry giant has a program that supposedly uses used shoes from donations for recycling in Singapore — but, apparently, that is not where at least part of the products are going.
A Archyde.com donated 11 pairs of sneakers to the program and hid a AirTag. With that, the reporter discovered that the donations ended up in the warehouses of a company called No Impex (an exporter of second-hand goods hired by a management company involved in the program), in Singapore. The idea would be to take the sneakers to its facilities.
Thanks to AirTags, however, it was revealed that this did not happen: the sneakers were exported to Indonesia, when some of the trackers stopped sending the signal. One of them remained in Singapore, in a housing project, although the location cannot be confirmed, and it is possible that the AirTag was removed from the shoe.
The other ten pairs of sneakers ended up taking a boat trip to the city of Batam, in Indonesia. Two of them were located in stores on the spot, including using the feature that makes the trackers emit a sound signal so that they can be found more easily.
Since 2015, the import of used clothes and shoes has been prohibited by law in the Asian country, due to health issues. Informal institutions, however, prevail: this market generates millions of dollars and several stores continue to sell these products, which in most cases come from another continent.
wanted by Archyde.com, Dow said it opened an investigation and, as a result, terminated the contract with Yok Impex, noting that it disapproves of the misuse of sneakers, but did not explain why the exporter did this. This, in turn, said that the partnership ended due to the end of the contract period.
In 2019, a pilot project by the company collected 21 mil pairs of sneakers supposedly for recycling. In 2020, there were 75 mil pairs donated in Singapore. A similar initiative was launched in Malaysia; these projects have even won awards for Dow, despite these controversies, which were uncovered with the help of AirTags.
Will we see a racetrack made with this recycled material? ????
AirTag
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via AppleInsider