Donate your shoes to Linn County waste to plant trees in Ghana

The Cedar Rapids Linn County Solid Waste Agency, along with Heaton & Associates Inc., American Family Insurance and Eastern Iowa NAIFA is partnering with the MORE Foundation, a nonprofit that collects gently used sneakers to resell in Africa and uses the money to support reforestation efforts in Ghana.

The MORE Foundation was started 23 years ago to reduce waste. Many shoes that are sent to landfills each year are still usable, and there’s a market for them in third-world countries. By reselling those shoes, the MORE Foundation raises funds that are used to buy seeds and plant trees. Currently the foundation is working on reforestation in Ghana, where they germinate and distribute to nurseries saplings of trees that bear fruit and generate income for students who are taught to farm the trees, according to the foundation’s website.

“As a community that was impacted by the derecho, we know how important trees can be to a community,” said Joe Horaney, communications director for the Cedar Rapids Linn County Solid Waste Agency. “So, the fact that this is going to result in more trees being planted, that’s just great.

The waste agency heard about the program through Heaton & Associates that had already been working with the program. Collection boxes are now available at three locations: Heaton & Associates at 610 Seventh Ave., Marion; the Linn County Solid Waste Agency at 1954 County Home Rd., Marion; and the Mount Trashmore location at 2250 A St. SW, Cedar Rapids.

The boxes are already getting close to filling up since they were put out at the Solid Waste Agency locations on March 23, Horaney said. Once the box is full, it will be sent to the MORE Foundation, and additional collection boxes will be put out.

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So far, there have been a lot of children’s shoes donated, since growing children often outgrow their shoes before they wear them out, according to Horaney.

Horaney said the shoes to trees program fits the waste agency’s mission “because this is a great diversion project for us. Anything that we can keep out of the landfill is a win because we’re running out of landfill space. And so, especially for something that can be reused, there is a market for it.”

The program is a good addition to other textile recycling programs that the waste agency already runs, according to Horaney. The waste agency partners with Thrift World, a Nebraska-based nonprofit, to collect other kinds of shoes and clothing that can be resold in thrift stores and in third-world countries, to keep old clothing out of landfills.

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