Ardnagrath NS pupils look to ‘go an extra mile in our runners’

What happens to our shoes and runners once we're finished with them? And is there a way to prolong their use in order to help those less fortunate and reduce the cost to the planet?

These were questions tackled by pupils from Ardnagrath National School in their though-provoking entry to this year's Arcadia Creative Climate Awards.

The awards are an annual environmental competition for local primary and secondary schools, which concluded with an exhibition and judging at TUS Athlone in May. Arcadia Retail Park sponsors the contest, organised in conjunction with Cllr Frankie Keena's 'Junior Mayor' initiative.

For their project, sixth class pupils from Ardnagrath NS, led by the school's Junior Mayor Jane Geraghty, and assisted by the student council, other pupils, and staff, decided to focus on the life cycle of runners.

They created a website - entitled 'A Pair of Trainers Needn't Cost The Earth' - in which they outlined their project and listed some stark details about the life cycle of footwear.

"Did you know it takes up to 40 years for a shoe to start decomposing in a landfill site?" the pupils wrote. "By the time your runners begin to decompose you might just be in your fifties!"

In order to do something to address this environmental impact, they got in touch with 'In My Shoes', a charity appeal in which used shoes and runners are sent to South Africa to be worn by township children in need.

The 'In My Shoes' programme transports the old shoes to Africa on vehicles that were already travelling to the destination regardless.

Collection points for the second-hand runners were put in place at the school, at the local branch of Elvery's Sports, and at some of the GAA clubs where Ardnagrath pupils play.

The principal of the school in Walderstown, Amelia Keena, explained that the project really caught the pupils' imagination.

"From the research the children did, they learned that if the shoe companies were a country they'd be the 17th biggest polluter in the world. When the kids started to find out these facts and figures they couldn't believe it themselves," said Ms Keena.

"They began to look at their runners, and what they were wearing, and realise that these things cost a lot, both from a monetary point of view and from an earth and human-labour point of view.

"So the whole aim was to give these (products) a second life, and to 'go an extra mile' in our shoes."

She said the initiative resulted in local donations of many pairs of good-quality used runners and football boots.

"They were being donated for the townships in South Africa, where the kids there can't go to school if they don't have footwear. For those children to get football boots and runners is like all of their Christmases coming at once."

The Ardnagrath pupils chose 'Ageless' as the name of their entry to the climate action awards, explaining, "We chose this name as we do not want our worn runners to become old and useless and causing further detriment to our world.

"On the feet of a child in the township of South Africa they are starting a brand new life while at the same time reducing the need to manufacture more, thus reducing the amount of carbon dioxide into the air."

The children carried out a survey of their fellow pupils and staff at the school, asking what type of footwear they were wearing. The result was clear-cut: Only six people (5%) wore shoes, while the other 126 who were surveyed (95%) wore runners.

It was also noted that, at the school's Confirmation this year, "100% wore runners".

Another aspect of the project saw the children carry out a detailed report on the life cycle of a shoe and the carbon impact at each stage of the process.

This looked at everything from the raw materials used in manufacturing, to packaging, transport, retail, purchase, and, eventually, disposal.

Ms Keena said some of the bigger footwear manufacturers, like Nike, had arrangements where people could send their runners back in order for them to be reconditioned and partially re-used.

However, she said the pupils wanted to see such initiatives expanded and wrote to some of the large companies "trying to get them to make it more viable or more accessible for people to bring back old runners".

The Ardnagrath children also stated on their project website that they lobbied local TDs "to put pressure on large manufacturing companies to provide incentive to consumers to return unusable runners to the parent company".

At the Arcadia Climate Action Awards, the 'Ageless' project from Arnagrath NS won awards for 'Best Circular Economy' project and 'Best Statistics'.

In total, seven primary schools and three secondary schools in the Midlands took part in the Arcadia Creative Climate Awards, 2023.

The primary schools were tasked with coming up with ideas to help the environment, while secondary schools were challenged to think about what Athlone will look like in 2050 and how we should prepare for environmental changes.