I agree. This is really top notch journalism; something we don't see often anymore. I would give this piece an award honestly.
It seems the real scandal is that they've caught Dow giving lip service about its recycling program. I think I'm fine with where the shoes ended up though. I'd rather see them get used.
so let's imagine what this journalist expected to happen to the shoes really did happen, and mulched up pieces of metal and batteries from the trackers really ended up in playgrounds intended to provide a soft and safe surface to play on.
maybe the journalism is good, but it poses danger to kids getting cut and being exposed to battery chemicals.
also if i ran a playground surface mulching service i would have a metal detectors for safety reasons and not allow these shoes to be mulched, which could be what actually happened.
But where is the lie? Dow says they are making tracks and playgrounds out of shoes. The article grants this is true. But for some reason the article tries to spin the fact that they are also recycling them whole as some scandal.
> U.S. petrochemicals giant Dow Inc and the Singapore government said they were transforming old sneakers into playgrounds and running tracks. Reuters put that promise to the test by planting hidden trackers inside 11 pairs of donated shoes. Most got exported instead.
The journalist spent lots of time and energy tracking these shoes. It appears they went in looking for controversy and are trying to squeeze some out of their benign findings.
"In media releases and a promotional video posted online, that effort promised to harvest the rubberized soles and midsoles of donated shoes, then grind down the material for use in building new playgrounds and running tracks in Singapore."
BTW Trainers being re-used is good. But big companies lying to us to is not good.