Hucknall Leisure Centre supporting campaign to stop a million pairs of running shoes being sent to landfill

Hucknall, Lammas Leisure Centre and Kirkby Leisure Centre – which all are run by Everyone Active in partnership with Ashfield District Council – are each hosting a collection bin where members of the local community can drop off their unwanted running shoes.

These are then sent to the charity JogOn, which liaises with logistics and distributions partners to ensure that reusable pairs are sent around the world to people who most need them, with the help of charities and non-governmental organisations.

JogOn estimates that every year in the UK alone, more than 30 million pairs of shoes end up in landfill, while elsewhere in the world around three million people suffer from sole diseases.

But it is hoped this nationwide partnership with Everyone Active will make a valuable contribution to drastically improving those statistics.

Lorenzo Clark, Everyone Active’s contract manager, said: “We are delighted to partner with JogOn for this hugely positive initiative, which means the local community can make a real difference.

“We would encourage people of all ages to donate their unwanted running shoes so that they can experience a second life, rather than simply going to landfill.

“It’s just a matter of dropping the shoes into collection bins at our centres and Everyone Active and JogOn will do the rest.”

Tony Piedade, JogOn’s chief executive, added: “We know from trials that leisure centre users are very engaged in this type of initiative and we fully expect to see 60 to 70 pairs collected per centre, each month.”