TreadLightly is a national initiative taking old, disused sports shoes, recycling them and creating new products such as rubber flooring, gym mats and playgrounds.

The program is a collaboration between Save Our Soles, the Australian Sporting Goods Association and more than 20 high-profile brands including Nike, Adidas, and Rebel and is hoped to recycle more than one million pairs by 2023.

Across the country, almost 50,000 pairs, or 33 tonnes, have been collected, with Ballarat contributing 500 kilograms alone.

Three Ballarat retailers are taking part in the program, Rebel Ballarat Central, The Athlete's Foot Ballarat and SportsPower Wendouree.

Ballarat residents are encouraged to take their old, worn runners, sneakers, football boots and any other sports shoes to the drop-off points.

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From there, the shoes are taken to a recycling plant where they are put through a granulator, the metal eyelets and synthetic fibres are removed and the remaining rubber, foam and TPU is mixed with recycled tyres to create retail floors, playground bases, running tracks and gym mats.

Research conducted by TreadLightly revealed the average Australian admitted to owning five pairs of shoes they did not wear, which works out to about 100 million shoes that could end up in landfill.

Australian Sporting Goods Association executive director Shaun Bajada said the goal of the program was to create a circular economy for sports shoes.

"What we try to do at the heart of the program is a circular economy and that means you go to a store, you buy in-store but then when you're finished with that product, you can go back into that store, get it recycled and then those stores can reuse those products," he said.

"For example, if you walk into Rebel Geelong, there are recycled floors made out of recycled shoes collected out of that store.

"The biggest thing for us is transparency as well. We want to make sure that we're dealing with the waste problem here in Australia and we're making new products out of this here in Australia."

Rebel Ballarat footwear retail team member Jake Mabbitt said it was great to see people coming in to use the store's drop-off point.

"People come in with their old, worn shoes and before this, you knew that they were just probably going to be put in the bin, but we can actually now offer the customers, if they're old and they want to get rid of them, an option here to not put them into landfill anymore, which is fantastic," he said.

"Whenever the opportunity comes up, if they're really well worn they want to wear the new shoes out, then we've got a bin here and it saves them going into landfill.

"I know a few of the staff, like myself, have all done it as well. If you're ever doing a clean out at home, it's always good instead of chucking them straight in the bin, bring them in here and we can get them all recycled."

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