Thomas BaekdalA Reuters journalist put 11 airtags in shoes destined to be recycled, but found they were being sold in used clothes markets instead ... okay, smart journalism ... but... isn't selling them just as good... or even better? I mean, if you have a used pair of shoes, the best thing for the environment is the prolong their use before they are cut up and recycled. So, I don't see what the problem is here. It might not be what was intended, but the outcome is surely better?!? https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/global-plastic-dow-shoes/
Mike Masnick ✅@baekdal also, isn't reselling the shoes... a form of recycling? One that has little to no waste involved?
Travelfish@mmasnick @baekdal think the point is the premise of the programme, greenwashing aside, was to keep the shoes out of landfill. Now that’s they’re somewhere here in Indonesia I can almost guarantee that landfill is where they’ll end up—even if a few years down the track. Waste management is already a complete disaster here and Singapore tossing its stuff in this direction for a quick buck isn’t helping the situation.
@travelfish @mmasnick Yeah, that a good point. However, this just illustrates that this is not a simple topic. What I think the Reuters story lacks is a larger perspective. Cutting up perfectly usable shoes seems to be just as big a problem here. Here is a picture that the Reuters journalist shared. What Reuters did was to focus on the wrong problem, in my opinion.
alyshalynn@baekdal @travelfish @mmasnick I think a large part of the issue they are raising is that companies like Dow undergo the theatrics of ‘recycling’ not for the end result, but to reap benefits other than 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 optics…
@baekdal @travelfish @mmasnick They get tax write offs for these sorts of programs. They get noted as ESG friendly. Thrse both make them look good to investment funds & expand their profits - it’s like a bureaucratic, corporate MLM where each participant in the ‘cycle’ gets to fly a false flag of ‘environmentalism’ while paradoxically expanding their consumptive business along the way.
@alyshalynn @travelfish @mmasnick I agree that what they did was greenwashing. But, Reuters reporting is not helping here. It's better to reuse perfectly usable shoes than to cut them up, but Reuters was so focused on just Dow. The result of their reporting is that now more usable shoes will be cut up, which doesn't solve the problem with either fast fashion or reuse/recycling