Nike collaborates with Ant Group to recycle shoes

Nike has joined Ant Group’s Green Energy Initiative and launched an official Alipay program to encourage more consumers to recycle worn-out shoes.

Chinese consumers can search the mini program “Recycle-A-Shoe” in the Alipay app, the leading digital open platform, to have their worn-out Nike shoes collected for recycling.

The Nike Grind technology will then be used to disassemble the shoes and reprocess them to create sustainable sports courts. Customers will get virtual green energy points in Alipay Ant Forest, a green mini-program, by doing this. Projects including the planting of trees, ecological restoration, or biodiversity conservation can benefit from these green energy points.

According to Stanley Chang, Vice President of Operations and Logistics of Nike Greater China, the cooperation with Ant Group allows Nike to reach more consumers for its Recycle-A-Shoe program through digital solutions on the Alipay platform and incorporate Nike’s sustainability efforts into daily life.

The "Recycle-A-Shoe" campaign by Nike has been running for 30 years. More than 120 million pounds of footwear production waste and more than 30 million pairs of worn-out shoes have been recycled to create cutting-edge sports products like basketball courts, soccer fields, jogging tracks, yoga equipment, and home decor.

Brands that want to give their customers greater incentives to act sustainably are welcome to participate in Ant Group's Green Energy Initiative, which includes green energy points in Alipay Ant Forest. By August 2022, more than 500 brands from a variety of industries, such as travel, packaging, and home appliance manufacture, had joined the project.