Nike Helps Urbandale Kids Recycle Sneakers

John Konior hopes there will be a lot of Urbandale homes with slightly cleaner closets as a result of a sneaker drive the city is launching with three Urbandale schools.

Konior, assistant Urbandale city manager and the city's guru of green, said the city applied for and received a grant from the Nike corporation to send up to 1,500 pairs of sneakers to the company's recycling plant where the cloth, leather, and rubber is separated and reprocessed for reuse.

The ReUse A Shoe program recycles the materials at Nike's recycling plant in Mississippi for reuse in playgrounds, tracks and other uses. Click on the Nike video to the right to see how its done.

The shoes will be collected the week of Nov. 7 at and Elementary schools and at School the week of Nov. 14.  Just to make it interesting, classrooms will at each school will compete to see who can bring in the most shoes. 

The winning classroom at each school will receive $100.

Metro Waste Authority also provided $1,000 for the program, Konior said.