This campaign was inspired by a group of runners who shared with Green Hero that they have some pairs of sports shoes at home and they don't know where to recycle them?
Hence, Green Hero decided to work with one of the sports shoe brands known as Brooks. They accepted our proposal to give a discount to those who recycle their shoe by bringing their old wearable sports shoes to their shop and in return they get an instant cash rebate for purchasing a new pair of sports shoes.
Moreover, we wanted to test this idea first to be done in Penang before implementing such an initiative in other states. So, we need a system to verify that they are living in Penang. This is where Penang Green Council came in with their Penang Green Citizen program. The program only caters to those who have a residential address in Penang to make a pledge to play an active role to contribute to a green society. Once they have agreed to the pledge, they will then allow to sign up as a Penang Green Citizen and enjoy other great discount that the partners have to offer with Penang Green Council.
After all the back-end preparation is done, we kick-start the campaign for a month.
Once the campaign has ended, we collected the sports shoes from Brooks Queensbaymall and channel it to House of Hope. A NGO in Penang Padang tembak that serves the B40 community.
They helped us to identify people who need a new pair of sports shoes and we received great responses from the NGO and the public.
One person's preloved item could be someone else happiness.
73 pairs of sports shoes have been given out to make a difference in 73 different people's lives.
Furthermore, the number of people who participated in this campaign also get to save at least RM14,000 in total. The instant cash rebate is something everyone looks at and a great way to encourage people to recycle or do their part for a greener tomorrow. This shows that at times, all we need is to give out incentives for people to do GREEN.
Lastly, we also helped to prevent 15kg of sports shoe waste from ending up in the landfill but those wearable preloved shoes were given to someone who is able to treasure them.
Well done everyone! Let's prepare to expand this initiative to other states in the weeks to come.
Thank you for always thinking green and supporting green.