For one Fairless Hills business they are taking the art of recycling to new levels, and incorporating social media into the mix. Shoebox Recycling is not only helping to make the world a little greener, but putting a new positive spin into reusing sneakers.

“The textile of the recycling world is an old world that has been little understood and shrouded in some mystery for quite some time,” said Ira Baseman, President/CEO and known as the Godfather of Sole.

“The idea of Shoebox Recycling was a way of re-thinking recycling. We want to place a human face on the consequences of recycling and to take what would otherwise be a very basic commodity, which is to reuse a pair of shoes, and to teach people about the positive consequences of their recycling activity.”

Shoebox Recycling is proud to a for-profit recycler of shoes founded in 2011 with a mission to recycle as many pairs of shoes as possible.

To date they have recycled more than 70,000 pairs of shoes and have shipped them around the globe to place as far away as Chile, Bolivia, Guatemala, and Jordan.

What makes this recycling more personable, is that with each pair of shoes donated to the program the giver has the opportunity to track the shoes and find what is described as a “solemate.”

“It’s that whole romanticism about the note in the bottle was the premise for Shoebox Recycling,” said Baseman.

“We allow people to place a note that we can generate off of our website and put into your pair of shoes. Once that is done, we track where your shoes are going and if your shoes are found with that note, the recipient can log onto our website, and you would be told that your solemate has been found.”

Every pair of shoes collected will be distributed for resale and reuse in its original form at various local marketplaces both here and around the globe.

“The goal is to make the world a little smaller, a little friendlier, a little greener,” said Lisa Pomerantz, VP of Marketing and Business Development, and also known as the Queen of Sole.

“We really want to change the way people think about recycling and bring home the idea that there is a very positive consequence. The more shoes you recycle, the greater chance you have at meeting your solemate and making some new memories.”

For more information on how and where to donate your shoes, please visit www.ShoeBoxRecycling.com.