Run your old sneakers over to recycle collection

Run your old sneakers over to recycle collection

If your growing piles of old sneakers are taking over your home and garage, you might want to gather them up and head for Churchville. During the month of September, the Union Congregational United Church of Christ will be holding a used sneaker collection as part of a recycling project.

Cheryl Valvano is Christian Education Co-Chair at the church and is working to organize the sneaker collection. "Fall is sneaking up on us," she said tongue-in-check. "The month of September is a good time with people cleaning out their closets, getting rid of old sneakers and buying new ones."

Valvano said church members were inspired to do a community service project by the theme of a play "Peace in the Kingdom," that they put on last spring. "The theme dealt with taking care of your community and the world. At the end of the play it says that now the work begins," Valvano said.

Church members first learned about sneaker recycling at one of the booths at this year's Churchville Walk-About in June. "We thought it was a real cool thing for kids and we decided to do it," Valvano said.

The collection will kick off September 9, Valvano said, the day the church begins its new Sunday School year. "Our theme for fall is about healing and keeping yourself healthy. Everyone will be wearing sneakers to church and will bring old sneakers for the collection," Valvano said. "Kids will watch a video about what they do with the sneakers during Sunday School," she said. "Then they will participate in healthy activities - physical activities like jumping rope. There will be healthy snacks for adults after church and then they will join in the physical activities with the children."

Valvano is working on the sneaker recycling collection with co-chair Carol Turkett. Old sneakers are collected by Monroe County and then are recycled by Nike, the athletic shoe manufacturer, in a program called "Reuse-A-Shoe." Nike takes the rubber, foam and upper fabric from sneakers and chops it up into a material called Nike Grind, Valvano said.

"The sneakers are made into things you would wear sneakers on," Valvano said. "The rubber outer sole is used for baseball and soccer fields, weight room floors and running tracks. The foam mid-sole is used for synthetic basketball courts, tennis courts and playground surfaces and the upper fabric is used to make padding for under hardwood basketball court floors."

"Any brand of sneaker is OK to donate," Valvano said and "worn-out sneakers are fine, they just have to be clean." Sneakers that have metal or lights can not be recycled, Valvano said.

Collection boxes will be located at the Union Congregational United Church of Christ at 14 North Main Street, the Newman-Riga Library and the Town of Riga offices on Buffalo Road. Valvano said she hopes to place a collection box in the Village of Churchville offices as well.

On its website, nikebiz.com, the company states, "Reuse-A-Shoe is a key component of Nike's long-term commitment to waste elimination by helping to close the loop on the life-cycle of literally millions of pairs of worn out or otherwise unusable athletic shoe material." The company also states that it is involved in donating some of the Nike Grind Surfaces to "underserved communities."

Valvano said Riga Town Supervisor Pamela Moore was instrumental in helping church members to make contact with Monroe County officials about the sneaker recycling program.

"I am very interested in cutting edge recycling initiatives," Moore said. "We met with the Monroe County recycling education/outreach person and it took off from there."

Monroe County spokesperson John Durso said the sneakers are collected at the recycling facility on East Henrietta Road and are picked up by Nike. He said the sneaker collection has been going on for a couple of years and has been very successful. "We are working locally to combat a global issue - the sneakers are turned into playing surfaces in underprivileged neighborhoods around the country."

Churhville Mayor Nancy Steedman says she is excited about the sneaker recycling project. A member of the Union Congregational United Church of Christ, Steedman said she thinks this project is great. "I was truly impressed by seeing how old sneakers can be used. It is also a wonderful way to involve the community in recycling, and for the youth of the community to learn that there are many items that we use today which can be recycled and will help our environment," Steedman said.

Steedman said she plans to incorporate recycling with the Arbor Day/Earth Day Celebration next year. "The village is looking into a way to collect used computers for recycling and I have mentioned to Cheryl (Valvano) that the sneaker collection might be a great thing to do again along with our Arbor Day/Earth Day Celebration."

Valvano said the church would definitely consider doing the sneaker collection again in the future.