Kaelin Kirchner offered her old Sketchers for the cause, while Owen
Seger donated his Air Raiders and Philip Ouellette his Rocket Dogs.
Wyoming Valley Montessori School students in Kara Taylor’s first- through third-grade classes are collecting old athletic shoes so they can be recycled into a various products. Standing behind the drop-off bins, from left, are Taylor, Philip Byriel, Emma Janosczyk, Philip Ouellette, Kaelin Kirchner, Owen Seger and Josh DiPippa.
Beyond bottles and cans, the students at the Wyoming Valley Montessori School are recycling the shoes off their feet, and they’re hoping others will clean out their shoe closets to help clean up the world.Kara Taylor and the 32 first- through third-graders she teaches are collecting old athletic shoes to recycle into a variety of products, including athletic surfaces and even new shoes. Sponsored by Nike’s Reuse-A-Shoe program, the students are collecting worn-out shoes that will eventually find their way to the company’s processing plant in Wilsonville, Ore., where they’ll be chopped into materials the company calls Nike Grind.
The plant separates the shoes into three pieces. The rubber soles are ground up for track, playground and gym-flooring materials, along with new shoe soles, buttons and zipper pulls. The foam midsoles become cushion for outdoor basketball and tennis courts, while the fabric uppers are used for indoor basketball and volleyball courts and equestrian surfacing products.
Taylor came upon the idea around Christmas after reading about a similar project in Philadelphia. “Immediately, I thought, ‘Wow, this is what we’re all about,’” she said. “This is exactly what we do every day.

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