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Dow said it was recycling our shoes. We found them at an Indonesian flea market 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. At a rundown market on the Indonesian island of Batam, a small location tracker was beeping from the back of a crumbling second-hand shoe store. A Reuters reporter followed the high-pitched ping to a mound of old sneakers and began digging through the pile. There they were: a pair of blue Nike running shoes with a tracking device hidden in one of the soles. These familiar shoes had traveled by land, then sea and crossed an international border to end up in this heap. They weren’t supposed to be here. Five months earlier, in July 2022, Reuters had given the shoes to a recycling program spearheaded by the Singapore government and U.S. petrochemicals giant Dow Inc. 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. Dow, a major producer of chemicals used to make plastics and other synthetic materials, in the past has launched recycling efforts that have fallen short of their stated aims. Reuters wanted to follow a donated shoe from start to finish to see if it did, in fact, end up in new athletic surfaces in Singapore, or at least made it as far as a local recycling facility for shredding. To that end, the news organization cut a shallow cavity into the interior sole of one of the blue Nikes, placed a Bluetooth tracker inside, then concealed the device by covering it with the insole. The tracker was synched to a smartphone app that showed where the shoe moved in real time. Within weeks, the blue Nikes had left the prosperous city-state and were moving south by sea across the narrow Singapore Strait to Batam island, the app showed. Reuters decided to put trackers in an additional 10 pairs of donated shoes to see if wayward pair No. 1 had been a fluke. It wasn’t. None of the 11 pairs of footwear donated by Reuters were turned into exercise paths or kids’ parks in Singapore. Instead, nearly all the tagged shoes ended up in the hands of Yok Impex Pte Ltd, a Singaporean second-hand goods exporter, according to the trackers and that exporter’s logistics manager. The manager said his firm had been hired by a waste management company involved in the recycling program to retrieve shoes from the donation bins for delivery to that company’s local warehouse. But that’s not what happened to the shoes donated by Reuters. Ten pairs moved first from the donation bins to the exporter’s facility, then on to neighboring Indonesia, in some cases traveling hundreds of miles to different corners of the vast archipelago, the location trackers showed.

Carpark Opposite Cineleisure Orchard Will Close In February To Make Space For Flea Markets & Pop-Ups Source: https://mustsharenews.com/grange-road-carpark-close/ Carpark Opposite Cineleisure Orchard Will Stop Operations From Feb 2020 Singaporeans who frequent Cineleisure or Scape might be familiar with the iconic open-air carpark opposite Cineleisure Orchard. The carpark, located at Grange Road, will cease operations from Feb 2020, according to The Straits Times. It’s popular among drivers because it’s known to be one of the cheaper parking spaces in town, with rates from $1.30/ 30 mins. Unfortunately, the days of cheap parking in Somerset are coming to an end. Carpark to be converted into permanent event space The Grange Road carpark had been “trialed” as an event space in recent times, having hosted the BMW Fest just last month. Moving forward, it will be hosting the Great Christmas Village — part of Orchard Road’s Christmas light up this year. The Singapore Land Authority has said that we should expect to see more flea markets, pop-up attractions and food trucks after February next year. They added that on non-event days, space will be used as a public area with “greenery and interesting street furniture”. Netizens react to the Grange Road carpark closure When this change was released on CNA’s Facebook page, a myriad of netizen comments started trickling in as some of them were seemingly devastated by the news. Expectedly, netizens responded with dismay, with one expressing that he was “super sad” as the Grange Road carpark was the “only place” he parks at when visiting Orchard. Another netizen is concerned that they would soon have to park in a shopping mall that costs “a plate of wonton noodle” each hour. Time to look for alternatives If you are one of those who are affected by this change, it’s probably time to start looking for alternatives. Otherwise, like this netizen says, it’s time to take the MRT.