SAVEarth is a 501(c)(3) Non Governmental Organization based out of Las Vegas, Nevada. Our mission is to take salvageable things that are otherwise thrown into landfills and repurpose them for use through donations to the needy people of developing countries. This endeavor will help save perfectly good things from going into our landfills through methods to repurpose and reuse. We aim to engage the
local peoples to get involved in the process, thus, providing a livelihood for the communities that we help in the developing world. OUR STORY:
While on a ski trip last March, Mark had a discussion with a couple of ski buddies about his ill-fitting ski boots. They recommended that he get custom-fit liners. Mark made his way into a company called Surefoot in Whistler to get his boot liners fitted. At completion, he asked Sam McDonald, the manager, what they do with all the stock liners that are taken out. His response was they are thrown out into landfills since they cannot be recycled. Upon further investigation, it became apparent that multiple custom liner companies throw out tens of thousands of pairs of perfectly new and gently used ski boot liners into the landfills across North America and Europe each year. Mark, always a man with fresh and innovative ideas, had a lightbulb lit in his head and said he’d take them. We headed back home with a big box of discarded, brand new ski boot liners to start. Mark set out to do some easy modifications to the liners to be converted to utility winter boot thermal liners. We investigated options for inexpensive overshoes for those modified liners. We then identified Mongolia as a country with the most dire need for these boots where the average income is $1.25/ day and winter temperatures can get as low as -50 degrees! We then wondered about how many other things that are thrown out by the thousands each year such as helmets, medical equipment, medical implant systems, as well as many other things that we don’t know about. These things are considered substandard in the First World but once repurposed, will become perfectly usable and valuable in the developing world.
