Sustainable procurement and use

A second lease of life for shoes

Swiss Post delivery staff can hand back their old work shoes. In the second-hand warehouses of the Swiss Red Cross in the Bern-Mittelland district, they get a second lease of life.

They've been down many roads, the work shoes, they've climbed stairs, got on and off the scooter. In time, you can see it. The cushioning is also not what it used to be – and at that point they're no longer suitable for miles and miles of daily deliveries. But do they have to be thrown away? No, says Swiss Post. In 2014, it launched a collection campaign to make sure that old work shoes don't end up in the bin or gathering dust in the basement.

As part of the shoe collection campaign “A second lease of life for shoes”, Swiss Post hands over used work shoes to the Swiss Red Cross in the Bern-Mittelland district. The Red Cross employees – often job seekers who are preparing for a return to work – sort the shoes: if they are clearly used but still in good shape, a mountain family is happy to get them for free. If the shoes are in mint condition, the Red Cross offers them for sale at reasonable prices in its “La Trouvaille” second-hand warehouses, where work shoes are very popular. The profits go to social projects. Heavily worn shoes are sent abroad, where they are mended and worn again. If none of these options is possible, the shoes are disposed of.

Pilot project for work clothes

In 2014, Swiss Post also launched the pilot project “A second lease of life for Swiss Post clothes”, in which 1,000 offices in seven cantons systematically collect discarded Swiss Post clothes. Collaboration with the Swiss Red Cross in the Bern-Mittelland district on the reuse of these clothes is planned.