They're going to need a bigger closet

They would have been cluttering up closets or heading for a landfill.

Instead, about six tons of toddlers' sneakers and basketball high tops were on their way to finding a new purpose Saturday.

Ninety schools, villages, libraries, community groups, scout troops and corporate offices dropped off more than 20,000 athletic shoes for Lake County's Reuse-A-Shoe program at Waste Management Recycle America's Grayslake facility Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

"Last year we doubled our efforts and had about 20,000 shoes. This year, we collected about 10,000 each day on Thursday and Friday, and many groups will be delivering today," Merleanne Rampale, a public information officer for the Solid Waste Agency of Lake County, said Saturday.

Rampale heads the agency's program and expects the collection to net 25,000 to 30,000 pairs of shoes this year. The agency and Waste Management's Recycle America team up to collect athletic shoes that are recycled or donated to charity.

Warren Newport Public Library collected nearly 1,500 shoes during the past six weeks, said staff member Diane Braun.

"This was the first time we had collected shoes and the response was overwhelming," Braun said.

Warren Newport was among 16 groups, including public libraries in Lake Zurich, Deerfield, Grayslake, Lincolnshire and Wauconda and park districts in Mundelein, Vernon Hills, Wauconda and Highland Park, that served as drop-off locations for the county. Others included Jewel Food in Antioch, Lake County Farm Bureau, Port Barrington Village Hall, state Rep. Kathy Ryg, Vernon Hills Public Works and Wauconda Village Hall.

Gurnee's Cub Scout Pack 671 collected more than 100 pairs of shoes as a conservation service project, den leader Spencer Stark said. The pack's 38 scouts also attended an open house at the facility earlier in the year to learn more about recycling, Stark said.

Jeremy Bloomfield, 12, a sixth-grade student at Meridian Middle School in Buffalo Grove, collected 1,100 shoes as a bar mitzvah service project.

"I put boxes in District 102 schools, the health club, my temple and the shoe store," Bloomfield said.

The recycled shoes are sliced and diced by Nike into material that likely will end up as rubber playground surfaces, tennis courts or multipurpose athletic turf. It takes roughly 3,000 shoes to make a basketball court and 100,000 for a track, according to Nike's Web site.

Shoes in good condition will be donated to charity, Rampale said.