DCL
Everyone has a pair: beloved old sneakers that stay in the closet even though they are well past their prime. When your sneakers have been with you for countless miles, through good times and bad, wet days and dry, during exercise and on lazy afternoons, they are hard to part with. But even when you are ready to let them go, what can you do with them? Where do old sneakers go to die?
It turns out that the answer is not simple. Bill Nye explains that sneakers get their bounce from PVC, a synthetic compound that contains potentially harmful phthalates. Fortunately, shoe companies are developing new, green, materials to make sneakers from. These "green rubber" shoes should be on the market soon and, in the mean time, there are sneaker recycling programs that will accept your old shoes.
For more, check out this online video from Stuff Happens.
For more green science, don't miss Stuff Happens Episode: Closet.
