You finally get them there. A pair of newly broken-in boots perfectly molded to the contours of your foot—it’s like you’re walking on air. But suddenly, like Cinderella (sort of), your beloved pair transitions to nothing more than something to be replaced. What do we do with those battered old boots then?
With around 22 billion pairs of shoes heading to landfill each year, it turns out it’s not just Carrie Bradshaw with a shoe problem.
Maybe they get worn down, or you just get sick of them. Whatever the case, there’s no reason to leave them languishing on the shelf or chuck them in the trash—where they could spend up to four decades breaking down.
So what’s the responsible answer to the age-old problem of what to do with old shoes? While there isn’t a sole solution, if you tighten your laces, we’ll run you through the options.
Contents: How To Dispose Of Old Shoes
- Donate Old Shoes Jump to section
- Sell Old Shoes Online Jump to section
- Repair Old Shoes Jump to section
- Swap With Friends Jump to section
- Upcycle Old Shoes Jump to section
- Downcycle Old Shoes Jump to section
- How To Recycle Old Shoes Jump to section
- Compost Old Cotton, Hemp, & Bamboo Shoes Jump to section
- How to Dispose of Old Shoes Responsibly Jump to section
Donate Old Shoes
Donating can seem like the easy solution when you’re trying to figure out what to do with used shoes, but check the shoes thoroughly before you drop them off. If they have a hole, are missing a sole, or look otherwise past their useful life, the odds are high that any thrift store will trash them. Goodwill had to send out a plea begging people to stop “donating” their trash.
If you can’t picture another person wearing the shoes or if they need serious repairs to be functional, don’t make them a thrift store or charity organization’s problem.
And if your shoes still have life in them, clean them up before donating them so that organizations will have an easier time finding a new owner. As it is, an estimated 90% of donated items don’t get resold.
When deciding where to donate old shoes, consider a more specialized charity like Soles4Souls, which focuses on diverting new and gently used shoes and clothes from landfill to people who need them most.
Bottom line: If you’re parting with a pair of shoes because you’re tired of them or they don’t fit your style or feet, donating them to a charity or thrift store can give them a second life. But if you’re trying to figure out what to do with broken shoes, save your local organization the hassle of trashing your old shoes and keep reading for a better fit.
Sell Old Shoes Online
If you have shoes you just no longer love, or running shoes that you didn’t wear much because they rubbed in the wrong place, they might still hold some value.
If your shoes are in good shape, donating them isn’t your only option. You could also turn them into a buck or two for yourself. Eco and budget-conscious shoppers are increasingly turning to platforms to sell clothes online and to snag items they want. If you take advantage, you know your old kicks are going somewhere wanted.
Of course, this option is better for dress shoes or like-new athletic shoes than for your worn-our old sneakers.
Selling them on is also a good option for old kids’ shoes. Kids’ feet grow so quickly that they may only have been worn a few times.
Repair Old Shoes
If the issue is the shoe’s wear, not its style, consider getting it repaired. You might be surprised at how much a cobbler can do. Generally, shoe-fixing professionals can repair:
- High heels
- Loafers
- Flats
- Dress boots
- Work boots
- Some running shoes
- Sandals
This gets especially handy if you’re considering parting with the shoe because of a bad fit. If it pinches your toes or rubs at your heel, a cobbler may be able to stretch or otherwise modify it to give you a better fit (depending on the material). Finding a local cobbler is ideal, but if you don’t have access to one nearby, you consider sending them in to a mail-in repair service like Coblrshop.
Alternatively, some brands offer repair services for shoes they made, though you generally need to have purchased a shoe from the specific brand to take advantage of their repair offering, so keep this in mind when shopping for new shoes. Some brands we recommend include:
- VYN’s self-repair model
- GORAL’s REBUILD+ service
- Vivobarefoot’s repair services
- NuShoe’s repair and rebuild services for running shoes
If you didn’t think that far ahead when you bought your shoes a few years ago, and your local cobbler can’t help, keep solediering on below.
Swap With Friends
As you’re figuring how to dispose of old shoes, start asking friends about their shoe sizes. Maybe even keep a note in your phone of friends with similarly sized feet.
Once you have a few old pairs you’re tired of wearing, organize a shoe swap. Tell people to bring their running shoes, boots, dress shoes, flats—anything they’ve got lying around. Those shoes you’re sick of might be the perfect fit for a friend’s wardrobe update.
And since everyone’s will hopefully be at least gently used, you don’t have to worry about breaking in a new pair.
Upcycle Old Shoes
Now it’s time to get creative when considering what to do with worn out shoes and think about what you could turn them into that’s (almost) as functional as footwear. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Fill an old boot with stones or sand to make a doorstop.
- Virtually any shoe can be a planter (i.e., a rain boot for herbs, a flat for a succulent garden)
- Worn-out sneakers can be made into a quick birdhouse by nailing the sole to a tree and dropping some birdseed in the toe.
As with any upcycled clothing project, creativity is key. Look at your specific pair of shoes. If you like the look of the whole shoe, that can spin off into a myriad of projects. If not, evaluate how you could use the materials in the shoe if you deconstructed it. You might find the perfect materials for your next project.
Downcycle Old Shoes
Shoes are often made of a variety of high-quality components, so even if the thing as a whole isn’t good to you, chopping it up and using what can is still better than throwing it all away. It might feel crazy to cut into what was once a perfectly good pair of shoes, but if they’re now past their useful life, this option can be better for the planet—and your craft supply budget.
Here are a few ideas to get your wheels turning:
- Cut up the foam from flip-flops and the soles of running shoes to make coasters.
- Reuse laces as sturdy ties around the house or as ribbons for gift wrap.
- Cut the outsoles into small pieces to place beneath the legs furniture to help keep it in place and prevent floor scratching.
- Attach the whole sole to a fabric or foam base to create durable, waterproof kneeling pads for gardening.
- Reuse eyelets, buckles, and other hardware in sewing projects, creating custom bags, or repairing other items.
- Use rigid heel counters for added structure in DIY projects, such as creating decorative items or reinforcing bags.
- Strip leather from leather boots and shoes to cover a journal, make a keychain, create a phone case, make patches for other leather goods—you get the idea.
How To Recycle Old Shoes
If you’re out of ways to give your odl shoes a second life, before you trash them, think recycling. But where to recycle old shoes?
To start, check with the shoe’s manufacturer to see if they have a return-and-recycle program. Giving the shoe straight back to the brand gives it the best chance of being recycled efficiently (possibly into a new pair of shoes to boot).
Here are some ethical shoe brands that offer closed-loop shoe recycling programs:
- LANGBRETT
- On’s subscription-based Cyclon™ program
- VEJA stores accept old shoes for recycling.
- Thousand Fell rewards you with store credit when you return their old kicks to them.
- The Virtuous Circle Program by Nothing New offers $20 off a new pair for recycling your old ones.
- Nike stores accept any brand of athletic shoes to break down and reuse in future pairs of Nikes or in surfacing for playgrounds, tracks, and more.
- Native Shoes take-back their own used shoes for donating, recycling, and material repurposing.
Beyond shoe manufacturers, TerraCycle offers a Zero Waste Box just for shoes. Purchase it, and you can send them as many old shoes (regardless of condition) as you can fit in the box. Since the boxes are quite large, you can get friends or family to go in on one box together and purge your shoe collections together.
American Textile Recycling Service operates donation bins across the country that take shoes, and Simple Recycling offers a free home pick-up for clothing and shoes donations. Those that can’t be rehomed are recycled for their materials.
Compost Old Cotton, Hemp, & Bamboo Shoes
This one can get tricky, but if you know the brand of shoe you’re working with, you can probably find the information you need to determine whether it will work. For a shoe to be compostable, it needs to be made entirely of natural materials that will break down. That seems obvious, right?
You might not consider how the shoe is held together, though. If it’s bound by specific types of glue or some synthetic material, it can’t be composted. That means your running shoes and high heels probably aren’t a candidate here.
But if you have single-material options—like all-wool sustainable slippers from Baabuk or Nootkas—you can possibly make this work.
Some shoes may be mostly single material but may have a rubber or leather sole. While both are natural and biodegradable, it won’t break down quickly enough in a home composter, so in this case, remove the outsole with a pair of pliars.
Check with the manufacturer. AURA QUE, for example, says their felted wool slippers can be composted once you remove the thread.
While it might not help you with the old shoes you have on hand now, knowing you can buy shoes designed to be composted can help next time you’re shoe shopping. We hope to see more compostable shoes on the market as more brands consider sustainable end-of-life options for their shoes.
Brands like BLUEVIEW already make 100% biodegradable shoes, and Vivobarefoot is developing a made-to-order, 3D printed, recyclable, and compostable shoe.
How to Dispose of Old Shoes Responsibly
Still wondering what to do with old shoes that cannot be donated? Or what to do with broken shoes but don’t have access to a recycling service? Can you put shoes in your regular recycle bin?
No. It might feel wrong, but putting your completely worn-out shoes in the trash bin is a more responsible way of disposing of them than putting them in the recycling bin. Because most shoes are created from several materials melded together, standard recycling facilities aren’t equipped to handle them. Tossing them in the recycling bin qualifies as wishcycling: a well-intentioned behavior that hampers effective recycling processes. Such contamination may lead to entire bins of otherwise perfectly recyclable goods being thrown away.
If you’ve exhausted all other options, the best way to dispose of them is to put them straight in the trash. Resort to this option only as a last resort.
