Hundreds of ‘perfectly good boots’ trashed at Yellowknife dump, people snatch them up

A heap of black, yellow and orange boots on the Yellowknife dump triggered a buzz amongst native residents — a lot in order that seemingly, inside every week of being thrown out, a lot of the boots had discovered new properties. 

Longtime Yellowknifer Walt Humphries first observed the pile of shoes final Friday.

“These ones have not been used a lot,” mentioned Humphries, a author, artist and prospector who’s lived in Yellowknife for over 40 years. “They’re completely good boots, there’s nothing improper with them.”

He mentioned he noticed near 100 pairs of steel-toed miners boots from the model Viking Footwear — the form of boots that Humphries says he is been utilizing “all my years up in Yellowknife.”

A model new pair goes for properly over $100 on-line, famous Humphries.

Humphries, who mentioned he is salvaged on the dump all his life, mentioned he instantly dug by way of the pile to search out his measurement. A handful of others had been additionally there, salvaging for a pair too, he mentioned.

Humphries mentioned he observed that some pairs had folks’s names written on the within neck of the boots

I solely took a couple of crates on the market simply to see what would occur. Lo and behold, they had been all gone.– Lloyd Lush, native man who owned the boots

“Simply folks’s final names. Like Edgar, Joe, nothing out of the odd … I assume it got here from of the mines,” he mentioned, including that miners typically write their names to maintain their footwear separate from the opposite employees.

Folks excited, some involved on social media

Phrase of mouth turned the boots right into a sizzling commodity on the town. 

On a Fb publish shared in a Yellowknife Classifieds group, some folks had been elated with the information.

“I NEED a pair,” wrote one resident. 

“Cheaper than Walmart,” wrote one other.

In the meantime others confirmed issues in regards to the quantity of pointless waste on the dump, and a few questioned the security of the boots.

Christina Socha, a Yellowknife resident, mentioned she dropped by the dump Thursday.

“There [were] just a few pairs left!” she informed CBC by way of a message.

Man discovers trove of rubber boots after public sale 

However Lloyd Lush, a Yellowknifer of 35 years who works within the scrap metallic and recycling enterprise, mentioned it was all meant for folks to salvage.

Lush mentioned he obtained the shock batch of footwear after profitable a bid at a mine public sale lately. Together with different tools and motors, Lush mentioned he cracked open the six, 4×4-foot picket crates to find he now owned a whole lot of rubber, steel-toe boots.

A recycler by commerce and coronary heart, Lush mentioned he tried to share his trove.

“No one else needed ’em. Nope. I requested everybody else, they mentioned they needed to be sanitized, cleaned,” he mentioned.

So Lush caused three crates to the landfill final week, figuring out its recognition amongst Yellowknife’s salvagers, hoping the boots would discover properties. 

“I solely took a couple of crates on the market simply to see what would occur. ‘Lo and behold, they had been all gone,” mentioned Lush, chuckling. “It is recycled. It is superior!”

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Lush mentioned he is planning on sending a crate of shoes to the homeless shelter in Calgary.

And the remainder?

“If you need any rubber boots, the dump has acquired you lined. You higher get on the market,” mentioned Lush. 

Discovering footwear at dump not unusual

“Fortunately these ones acquired salvaged, typically they do not. And it is such a waste to destroy completely good things,” mentioned Humphries.

Humphries is a frequenter of the dump and mentioned he goes about as soon as every week. He mentioned discovering footwear is not unusual.

A number of years in the past, he mentioned he discovered a heap of a couple of hundred pairs of white winter boots on the dump.

Humphries mentioned he desires town to do one thing about massive portions of “completely good” merchandise being trashed. 

“The town and the federal government … must be much more proactive about ensuring the good things would not find yourself buried on the dump,” he mentioned. 

“That makes completely no sense.”

“We do encourage gadgets to be donated to organizations when potential such because the Habitat for Humanity ReStore on the Stable Waste Facility,” said a metropolis spokesperson in an e mail to CBC, including residents are “very acquainted” with salvaging alternatives on the dump.