World Environment Day inspires young adults to keep unwanted shoes out of landfills

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Louisville’s WaterStep is celebrating World Environment Day on Friday, June 5^th.

They are hosting a community-wide shoe drive inviting people to drop off their unwanted shoes at WaterStep (contact free) from 10am to 3pm.

Several local teens have been creative in stepping up to host contact-free shoe drives in their neighborhood during COVID-19.

After the shoes are collected and donated to WaterStep, they are exported, repurposed and ultimately provide affordable footwear to individuals in impoverished communities who now have the increased protection against disease as a result of wearing shoes.

The program also provides people in the developing world with the ability to have microbusiness opportunities, adding economic benefits to their communities.

The repurposing also creates a positive environmental impact by reducing the number of unwanted shoes going into landfills.

WaterStep’s manufacturing department is also very active building BleachMakers to fight the spread of the virus.

Click here to get connected to WaterStep.