“They said it’s not uncommon to throw out half the shoes they receive because the footwear is not good enough to sell.”

Apparently it may be closer to half than 10%.

And protectionism in Indonesia makes it illegal to import used shoes because of “hygiene”.

I’m not absolving Dow, but there was a lot to get angry about in the article.

Why believe the shoe seller? Perhaps half of the shoes appear usable and are sold as such, but most of those quickly disintegrate when worn. After all there are plenty of people in Singapore who will happily buy used and usable shoes. Anything that falls through this sieve to be exported is probably trash, which the Indonesians well know. It is reasonable for them to reject imports of which 1% are unusable, let alone 50%.