Recycling Footwear: Challenges and Opportunities
ANNOUNCER: Part 3. You will hear two students called Bella and Don discussing a presentation they plan to do on recycling footwear. First you have some time to look at questions 21 to 24. Now listen carefully and answer questions 21 to 24.
BELLA: Hi, Don. Did you get the copy of the article on recycling footwear that I emailed you?
DON: Yes, I have it here. I’ve already had a look at it.
BELLA: So, do you think it's a good topic for our presentation?
DON: Before reading it, I thought there probably wasn’t much to say about recycling shoes.
DON: I assumed that people just put shoes into recycling bins or charity shops, and that was the end of the story.
BELLA: But the article shows there's much more to it than that.
DON: Yes, I realize that now, and I’d like to research the topic more.
BELLA: That's great.
DON: One thing that surprised me was the number of trainers that get recycled.
BELLA: A lot of young people wear trainers all the time now.
BELLA: They’ve actually become more popular than ordinary shoes.
DON: They’re very hard-wearing, but I still think they look too casual for school uniforms.
BELLA: I think some trainers actually look quite smart, sometimes even better than old worn-out shoes.
BELLA: Do you keep your shoes for a long time?
DON: Yes. I usually keep old shoes for dirty jobs, like cleaning my bike.
BELLA: I have to admit I’ve recycled some shoes that still fit and weren’t out of fashion.
BELLA: I just didn’t think they looked good on me anymore.
DON: That’s actually quite common, especially since there’s so much choice when buying shoes.
DON: The article mentioned that footwear sales have increased enormously.
BELLA: That doesn’t surprise me.
DON: But interestingly, the amount of recycled footwear has actually fallen.
DON: It’s now around 6%, compared with a previous level of 11%.
BELLA: That’s because some shoes aren’t good enough to be resold.
BELLA: So they get rejected during the recycling process.
ANNOUNCER: Before you hear the rest of the discussion, you have some time to look at questions 25 to 30. Now listen and answer questions 25 to 30.
BELLA: Let’s find some examples of shoes that were rejected for recycling.
DON: I think they’re mentioned in the interview with the recycling manager.
BELLA: Let’s start with the high-heeled shoes.
DON: They were probably quite expensive and made of suede.
DON: They were beige in colour and looked almost new.
DON: But they had been worn in a very wet field.
DON: The heels were badly stained with mud and grass.
BELLA: OK, what about the leather ankle boots?
DON: The heels were worn, but that wasn’t the main problem.
DON: One boot had become a lighter colour because it had been left in the sun.
BELLA: So the pair didn’t match anymore.
DON: Exactly.
BELLA: Then there were the red baby shoes.
DON: Yes, people are supposed to tie shoes together before putting them in recycling bins.
DON: Unfortunately, the other shoe couldn’t be found.
BELLA: That was a shame because they looked new.
DON: The trainers were interesting too.
BELLA: They looked like they had been used by a marathon runner.
DON: One of the soles was so worn that you could actually put your finger through it.
BELLA: These examples would be useful in our presentation.
DON: Yes, especially to explain why about 90% of shoes collected for recycling end up in landfill.
BELLA: What did you think about the project where they tried making new shoes from parts of old ones?
DON: It sounded like a good idea at first.
DON: But it failed because people didn’t want to buy shoes that were different from each other.
BELLA: Exactly. The pairs didn’t look identical.
DON: However, they still managed to export those shoes overseas.
BELLA: That’s another issue we should include in our presentation.
DON: Yes, because recycling footwear is clearly more complex than it first appears.
ANNOUNCER: That is the end of Part 3. You now have 30 seconds to check your answers.
