There’s a wealth of public land in the United States, and that’s quite literal: In 2023, outdoor recreation drove 3.1% of employment in the U.S., 2.3% of our GDP and $1.2 trillion in economic output. That’s a lot of bicycles and climbing shoes.
Unfortunately, there’s also a dirty little secret behind all the stuff we need to enjoy those special places. Making hiking boots, waterproof jackets and sports equipment from carbon fiber is taxing on the environment, and much of this stuff can be nearly impossible to recycle.
More businesses are taking note, however, and finding creative ways to salvage, repair and recycle sports equipment and outdoor gear into other things. Emme Hayes, founder of gear reseller Articles In Common, has been working with many gear manufacturers to push them to take their products’ end lives more seriously.
“I don’t think ‘sustainability,’ is the answer,” she says. “I think it’s circularity,” or building products with recycling in mind right from the start.
Whether you’re in the business of making, selling or renting gear, or you just happen to be a hardcore backpacker, there are ways for you to help.
Start with repairs
Before you throw out your stuff too quickly, research whether it’s really too far gone or if it’s possible to repair the item. The most sustainable thing you can use is the thing you already have—or a secondhand version of it, if yours is beyond repair. Companies like NoSo Patches, GEAR AID and Nikwax offer a wide range of DIY fixes. When you’ve got a broken zipper or something bigger, however, workshops like Rainy Pass Repair, or local experts like the Gear Healer in Salt Lake City, Utah, can help make your product brand-new again.
Kick it back to the manufacturer
Manufacturers should be your first point of contact when you’re not sure how to dispose of your equipment. Patagonia, for example, has long been a leader in providing and promoting repairs over replacements, and now more companies are following its lead. REI Co-op stores have a year-round used gear section, consisting of returned and traded in items. The North Face’s “Take Back” bins make it easy for customers to drop off used apparel and gear so the brand can refurbish, donate or recycle it.
In 2023, German manufacturer Schwalbe launched a “Cradle-to-Cradle” recycling program in the U.S. so that bike shops could send in their junk tubes to be recycled and made into new ones. Doing so reduces the overall energy consumption of making new tubes by over 80%.
If you can’t find recycling information on the manufacturer’s website, it’s worth contacting them to ask. If enough customers start looking for circular solutions, they might get the hint to work harder in the future.
“It’s what the consumer wants,” says Tom Meades, co-founder of gomi, which makes power banks and speakers out of reclaimed and recycled materials, all of which are designed to be repaired.
“This generation coming through now, who are just starting to have disposable income, they want to buy products that are made better for the environment. They don’t want to buy the cheapest thing that’s going to break and have to buy something else.”
Collaborate with artists and makers
Every year, millions of inner tubes for bike tires end up in landfills in the United States alone. However, one artist—who happens to be an avid mountain biker herself—has found a way to turn that trash into simple yet sophisticated accessories. Alixandra Klein, the Colorado-based founder of ABD Culture, makes laser-cut earrings, bracelets and necklaces out of old bike tubes. The result is surprisingly elegant jewelry, which not only looks stunning but also has the added benefit of being remarkably light and nearly weightless.
Klein had long wanted to create art from discarded materials and started the company as a way to combine her outdoor hobbies with her artwork.
“We all know how saturated the jewelry market is,” she says. “We all want to be jewelers….I was like, ‘Well, I can’t just make another jewelry product.’”
Using reclaimed materials seemed to be the best solution. As of March, she estimates that she’s made about 20,000 pieces of jewelry from several thousand bike tubes since she started the company. She collects them from bike shops and friends happy to give them away for a second life.
Gomi, a British company, has also positioned itself as a creative solution. They power their devices with battery cells salvaged from London e-bikes, such as those from Lime, which regularly need to be replaced or upgraded. The housing for the batteries is made from a type of recycled plastic that isn’t as easy to reuse, so they melt it down to create unique marbled patterns. They’ve also used this process to mold speakers and battery packs out of waste from other companies, such as the plastic bags used to ship clothing and the handles for beer taps.
Most recently, they worked with a local artist to turn old uniforms from delivery drivers and the National Health Service into pouches to protect their devices.
Go circular
If you’re in the business of stuff, take some time to consider your product’s end-of-life before you even get it on shelves. Climbing shoes, for example, are among the most unsustainable products out there, Hayes says, and climbing gyms wear through rental pairs extremely fast. While Articles In Common uses materials from gear that’s beyond repair to make other products—such as tents or torn jackets—Hayes has found climbing shoes nearly impossible to work with or recycle.
She’s recently been focusing her efforts on communicating directly with brands to try to persuade them to improve their practices right from the start.
“It’s like turning off the tap,” Hayes says. “You can filter the water however way you want, but unless you turn off the source or reduce the source, you’re not actually effectively doing anything to combat the real issue.”
Meades agrees. “The first thing you need to consider when designing something new is how it’s going to die, or how long is it going to live for,” he says. “If you can’t make them repairable, and if they don’t need to last forever, make them so they’re compostable so they can go back into the ground.”
Out with the new, in with the old
The most sustainable version of whatever you’re seeking is one that already exists—regardless of how it was made. So, once you find a new home for your old stuff, consider finding a secondhand option if you need to replace it.
Play It Again Sports buys and sells secondhand sports gear and apparel all over the U.S., and many communities have independent outposts, too, such as Boulder Sports Recycler in Colorado. You can also check to see if anyone in your community is trying to give away what you’re looking for. Buy Nothing is an international network that’s kind of like a Craigslist where everything is free.
Give your old sports gear a second life
Looking for a sustainable way to get rid of your old sports equipment? Here are a few places to start your search.
Articles in Common
Articles In Common, based in Los Angeles, purchases secondhand gear and apparel in decent condition and resells on its website. They’ll repair items that need a bit of TLC, and to the best of their ability, they’ll use materials from items too far gone in order to make something new. articlesincommon.com
Terracycle
For a fee, TerraCycle’s Zero Waste Boxes take the guesswork out of recycling. You can order a variety of specific boxes—such as for shoes or ink cartridges—or a catchall box to send in your tough-to-recycle items. All you have to do is fill the box, send it back and they’ll figure out how to recycle the materials. shop.terracycle.com
For Days
For $20, For Days will send you a Take Back Bag for all your unwanted textiles. Think rain jackets, team uniforms, that fleece with a big hole in it and so on. About 74% of what they take back ends up being reused, and only 5% gets sent to landfills. The rest is broken down for fiber recycling. fordays.com
Recycleballs
Every year, American tennis players send millions of tennis balls to landfills. RecycleBalls offers a solution: Send in your stash, and they’ll remove the felt and grind the rubber so it can be recycled. If they’re in decent condition but not quite suitable for the U.S. Open, they may be sold as toys for dogs. recycleballs.org
This article originally appeared in the July/August 2025 issue of SUCCESS® magazine. Photo courtesy of maxbelchenko/Shutterstock.
