Recycle Shoes... A Tri-State Green Initiative

Every year Americans throw out millions of pairs of beat up sneakers. The dump might seem like a fitting "final resting place" but students at one Newburgh school think they have a better idea. Its 2:15 in the afternoon and the students of Sharon Elementary are winding down for the day. But not before they put the finishing touches on a pretty big project. Theyre saving the world one shoe at a time. Its the "Reuse a Shoe" initiative, a drive to collect hundreds of worn out sneakers. The brand doesnt matter, so long as theyre athletic shoes and theyre metal-free. The students just want everybody at Sharon to go home and dig through their closets. When its all said and done - the shoes the students collect will be sent to a Nike recycling factory in Oregon, where theyll be separated and the soles chopped into rubbery particles. Then, Nike will process the materials to make new sporting surfaces. So far, the shoemakers donated 250 of them and saved 40 million shoes from our landfills. And so Sharon Elementary school student council members color, creating big bright signs, hoping their work pays off in beat up old shoes. The kids at Sharon are collecting their shoes the last two weeks of February. Wed like to invite other tri-state schools to jump on board too and choose a 2 week period sometime between March and the end of the year. With your help, well collect 20-thousand pairs, and save a lot of shoes from our landfills.