I read the thread on Chinese FT, I can read Chinese so there's no google translate needed.

What I can understand is that there is a Renaissance customer service (probably AYS) claimed that they reuse slipper, and a housekeeping staff at a JW in China claimed so.

Maybe this is an independent hotel's policy, or could be that those people don't know what they are talking about.

On page 2 one mentioned that a "front desk manager" (don't know how to translate the title) saying that it's such a waste - I guess it's imply that they are not recycling the slippers.

I think Flyertea has a lot of strange ideas about hotels - they bring their own towels, using complementary red wine to disinfect the bathtub......

Don't know what to say about China - it's a country where people actually refill beer cans with whatever unknown liquid (saw a video my friend posted on my facebook page) and used machine to reseal it - something that we cannot imagine why it can be worthwhile to do. I know they do it with expensive red wine but beer? So I wouldn't be surprised if some hotels choose to go cheap.