How Reuters used AirTags to reveal Dow’s false recycling promises

We’ve seen countless clever use cases of Apple’s AirTag item trackers, but nothing quite like this one. As part of an investigative report into recycling practices of Dow Inc. and the Singapore government, a Reuters reporter planted hidden AirTags into 11 pairs of donated shoes.

“Dow said it was recycling our shoes. We found them at an Indonesian flea market,” the headline of the resulting story reads.

Dow Inc., one of the world’s largest chemical producers, said it was “transforming old sneakers into playgrounds and running tracks” as part of a recycling initiative in Singapore. As Reuters explains, however, the company had previously “launched recycling efforts that have fallen short of their stated aims.”

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 investigate the legitimacy of Dow’s latest recycling claims, Reuters journalists planted a hidden AirTag into 11 pairs of shoes and donated those shoes to the company. The reporters then monitored the location of the shoes via the Find My app, watching them travel through Singapore and into Indonesia.

“None of the 11 pairs of footwear donated by Reuters were turned into exercise paths or kids’ parks in Singapore,” the report says. The final destination varied from pair to pair, but none of the shoes were used as Dow had promised.

The full report is fascinating and offers more details about the investigation’s results. The idea to use AirTags in this investigation was incredibly clever and shows the versatility of Apple’s item tracker.