How Dow's shoe recycling pledge in Singapore veered off track

[@fenn9911]

Good job Reuters 👏. Thank you for doing the investigative journalism which is lacking in our local media.

[@BeachBoi1000]

Good job

[@jessicaregina1956]

Hahahahhahahahhshshah if a true master do the operation, reuters will have to physically track the shoe from point of entry to Indonesia! Doubt they have time to do so!

[@kitsura]

States Times and Mediacrap are the gahmen mouthpiece. They only publish articles approved by the gahmen. That is not journalism. That is why their top people have links to ISD instead of a journalism background.

[@user-sf5bt8eb4y]

Great job Reuters!, such investigatigative journalism will never exist in local media

[@jessicaregina1956]

Reuters is small potatoes, if a true master do this operation, all shoes will be checked at point of recieving and reuters can report nothing!

[@misssometing]

@@jessicaregina1956 ??????

[@francisleesc]

Why is there no criminal charge against the directors of the firm? Isn't it a case of criminal breach of trust? .

[@cnaizhen]

I'm not into law, but this case sounds to be too trivial for criminal charges against the directors. Reputation hurt leading to share prices being affected sounds more plausible if this case is on a larger scale.

[@Lu5ck]

They are just scapegoat. It is a worldwide practice as the logistics can add up to be more expensive than buying brand new. So the worldwide practice is to "reuse" them by reselling and split the money. Don't ever believe everything get recycled or donated just because the collector write so, there are fine prints involved.

[@MrItsjuzagame]

can argue say the shoes were taken by garang guni

[@FoodieWarrior]

This is great investigative journalism. Solid work Reuters!

[@jessicaregina1956]

This was horrible operation by the other end! A proper sanitisation procedures would have resulted in all materials checked beforehand and reuters can only report that their shoes reached the warehouse!

[@Kworks86]

Now this is real journalisim, keep it up and Great work.!

[@mamamememoo]

Too bad not ST who uncovered it

[@dennischu4222]

Awesome work by Reuters for this piece.

[@gasperblight931]

its not just shoes, i saw clothings that were recycled also sold in batam

[@impopquiz]

U have to read the recycle pamphlet properly. Some are companies doing the collection/clearing for u and it mentioned they will be resold for selected items.

[@paulinewqi]

BRILLIANT work!...kudos .. Thanks for sharing..👍👏👏💝🌻

[@Leventhan1]

Amzing work Joe Brock!

[@Lu5ck]

Lol. Yok Impex is just scapegoat. "Recycling" or "donation" sounds really good on paper but that's just on paper. It involve a lot of logistics which can end up being more expensive than just simply buying new ones. It is because of this expensive logistics, the common practice is to simply re-use the good quality ones by reselling them to 2nd-hand market in developing countries. Then share the profits. Nowadays, increasingly number of collections will explicitly stat this because it is no longer a secret. I find it disgusting the authority and business try to hide this open secret.

[@wenbenshaw4197]

Love how the ceo gave that blur sotong look n push all blames to worker. In the end, ultimately they were still recycled as in a second lease of life.

[@ivangim1]

Without stringent checks in the processes, profit-driven, big business ignores all caution, conscience and care. After all, there's no law to prosecute the players. There'll be other avenues to get the supply of those shoes flowing again. With one exception; keep out that Reuters man.

[@Kworks86]

would be interesting if they even have any actual green iniatives, if they do please do a piece on it =)

[@stargazeronesixseven]

🙏 Thank You Reuters for exposing these suppose to be in the Collect to Recycle Initiatives that turned into Collect to be Sold in 2nd Hand Markets. Same goes to many green initiatives or donation campaigns for the needy that the proceeds ended up in the hands of the middle men. Better prepared Good Auditing Team to check on these initiatives or campaigns , if not the proceeds would only benefit the middlemen. 🐕

[@jfjjdmsndnfdjsjmsnrnf6946]

Just in this case selling the still wearable shoes into the 2nd hand market is the much more ecological and social thing to do, no matter how good the recycling process is. But yeah, not whats promised.

[@adrianloh6541]

Dow and the government could have easily avoided all this by phrasing it differently. Its not uncommon for recycling companies to resell good as new products as it makes no sense spending energy turning it into a different product with lower value. If their ultimate goal is to divert these shoes from the incinerator and landfill, they did a great job. If their ultimate goal is to create materials for playground/ jogging tracks like what they have claimed, they did a horrible job. Maybe Reuters could have tracked couple of heavily worn shoes that are clearly not fit for the second hand market and see if they made it to the shredding facility. Great job to the Reuters team that uncovered this!

[@jeneuweenlaf948]

Exactly.

[@emailant]

Absolutely best comment I’ve read on this. Dow’s (Holier than Dow) response is not taking responsibility for what happened. Just cutting loose those further on the downline. Can’t believe an organisation with such values can be so highly celebrated here. Says alot about accreditation tells very little about true value.

[@teh7040]

Now that you mentioned it. Resale actually did more good than bad. But did the firm channel the profit from sales back into the triple R's causes.

[@Qoonutz]

Imagine it is Sports SG, mainstream media are quite nice on this saga. If it were the Workers’ Party or any opposition, I am sure mainstream media will stir this shit for months! Hahaha!

[@ocswoodlands]

Batam is basically the flea market of SG goods. All the karung guni stuff ends up there. So be careful when you buy stuffs in Indonesia cos the likelihood is that they are used goods.

[@clarencechan835]

Good job Reuters!

[@magixcue9512]

Thanks for revealer it . May not believe all the charities and recycling company anymore .

[@JJ-iu6sr]

Cool. Which tracker did Reuter use? Seems it has high location accuracy and long power durability.

[@iirquhs]

that apple tracker if I'm not wrong

[@gabriel-rv9my]

apple airtag

[@jessicaregina1956]

Reuters is nothing! If a master do the operation, all shoes are checked at final recieving point before send on and reuters can report shit!

[@megadisc1982]

Apple air tag

[@Buttercookies0]

When projects are just sub-contracted out with the main contractor just concern with making money (no checking), things will go spiral down. How many charities have also engaged contractors to collect old items from residential homes without checking their routines. Once, i called up a charity organisation to check whether they are having a collection on a particular day (because when I realised the collection were very frequent), I was told they did not have the schedule and just leave the collection totally in the hand of the contractor. I was appalled. So, it is not to one's imagination that the contractor could be collecting on 3 different occasions but just submitted for 1 occasion. This is worse than Ownself check ownself. Now, ownself also never check ownself.

[@ready4cheeseburger]

That's so Singapore, like the report card but dont really care about the process.

[@DanielPangemanan]

Well done Reuters! Now, makes me wonder what other supposed recycled program that other companies are doing

[@banndell]

Money money money!

[@frankchong5585]

Is it a deliberate "mistake"?

[@RonLarhz]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 If reuters nv do this none local would have. Also it's gullible to think that this is the end of it. But hey singapore no corruption right?🤣🤣🤣

[@meindramasry7960]

Terima kasih, membuat dunia mengerti apa yang terjadi di Singapura

[@retroworldnews]

Well Done Reuters Expose this.

[@megadisc1982]

Thanks government

[@megaredkentadate9834]

That look and reaction from that Yok Impex boss is telling everybody that "I bo chap, I don't care and its not my problem. What matters is I got money to take."

[@sideways4life993]

Airtags coming in clutch

[@emalejack]

I wonder how much they sold all those old shoes 🤔

[@daezjn]

Whoaaaa😮

[@drjennyli]

I smell corruption from Singapore sports council.

[@kevinchen9250]

This can be broadly categorised as dishonesty. Next time be careful of all these recycling and charity movements.

[@godsamazinggrace5331]

Are these actually new shoes kept away and now thrown out by the rich who buy excessively without any qualms??

[@鲁焚化炉]

Good character janitor doesn’t know most people have more than 2 pairs of sport shoes, working shoes, party shoes etc.? Thought you should have picked up many 😝

[@ivanteo1973]

I have never donated anything through these organisations. Most of them went to resale for profits.

[@ajaysan4191]

Well Done Sir ! Btw itz Singapore n You cant fight the entire family 😀😀😀

[@tngchinghwa]

careful, exposing singapore government incompetence will bring you trouble

[@MsKhairul06]

Alba w&h?

[@kalmdwn7711]

even better - the shoe is re-used

[@lycan39]

Such integrity to deliver empty promises make trust worthless in modern times. Shame upon all. No wonder 🤔 recycling efforts amount to more landfills. 🚮🚮🚮🚮🚮🚮🚮🚮

[@grannygrammar6436]

Newsreader, second-HAND shoes are shoes that you wouldn't use on your FEET, your HEAD, or, Heaven forfend, your FIRST hand. Granny thinks you mean second-hand SHOES, as opposed to second-hand socks or cars.

[@SuccessforLifester]

Actually if the shoes are still good, it isn't that bad for it to get a second life instead of getting it shredded for recycling.

[@tayspiderx]

Dow not fined? BS siah

[@RonLarhz]

What u expect? $$ speak louder. 61% still blind or ostrich.

[@waimunyan7007]

It’s a facade

[@simroysten7963]

You should have gone to the police.

[@jessicaregina1956]

You think police is god? 🤣

[@NewmaticKe]

Crooks

[@jessicaregina1956]

Hey !! But at least they didnt have SHN in hotel like you did!

[@jessicaregina1956]

Did not practice proper sanitisation procedures. All suspect materials entering your checked area must be checked 🤣 if i was running such an operation all trackers will be excised at point of recieving and reuters can report nothing!!!!!!!

[@starman1994]

What happens to old EV car batteries? Recycling my @rse.

[@laurenspang]

angmoh also like to alibaba

[@BeachBoi1000]

Haha… what a joke

[@erallan]

Hello Reuters, what is the purpose of recycling? If the shoes are still wearable, then shouldn’t they be reused until it is not wearable in order to promote the green environment? Instead, Reuters should sponsor a project to ensure no wearable shoes are recycled!!! Another twisted logic by the so-called big corporations.

[@dinoweiming7495]

You missed the point. If Dow and Sports Singapore have committed to recycling old shoes, then they have to deliver. They can’t collect accolades based on the intended commitment and do an entire different thing by profiting from these illegal sales. Every promises these commercial or government organisations made must be fulfilled.

[@erallan]

@@dinoweiming7495 If an organisation is bent on doing bad things like the Nazi, would you change or join them because it was their very purpose? You are a good executor and do as was told, unfortunately, I wish you are also a great visionary thinker.

[@93hothead]

if their program was to recycle it into sports/playground facilities then that is what they should do. if they told everyone they were reselling it then sure, but they did not. This is a breach of a trust that they have told the public.

[@erallan]

@@93hothead That’s true, both corporations are at fault and do not understand the very purpose of recycling which is to promote green by using minimal resources wherever possible.

[@9405288]

Not competent thats why

[@myykeats]

These shoes look newer than mine. Why not give them to me and recycle mine? Better for the environment. I think the recycling partner was correct to resell these instead of recycle the fully working pair. Reuters should at least understand the point of recycling. I can't believe they even flew someone to track this. It's so counterproductive from an environmental standpoint to find out nothing interesting.

[@knock-knockwhosthere9933]

They need to use fairly new shoes that has potential resale value in order for the probable suspicion to materialise.

[@a9525]

Hypocrisy and deception. The Singaporean people deserves at least an apology

[@RonLarhz]

No. We kinda deserved it. 61% approved.

[@uUwUu69]

It's a honest mistake... Move on guys

[@huangzb8060]

Some corrupted and greedy guys could have benefited.