As every serious athlete knows, having high performance equipment is helpful to excel in most sports. If there's a new shoe to improve your 10K time, or a bike that cuts down on wind resistance, many athletes need to have it. However, trading up a few times a year and trashing your old gear can leave an unnecessarily large carbon footprint.

At times, it may seem hard to believe that one simple donation can make a difference in helping the environment. However, recycling programs are out to prove just that. One pair of shoes, or one bicycle means that much less will be taking up space in a landfill.

Thanks to various local and national companies and cooperatives, there are plenty of opportunities to help the environment one shoe or bike at a time.

NIKE REUSE-A-SHOE

One of the best-known shoe donation programs is the Nike Reuse-a- Shoe initiative. Twenty million pairs of shoes have been donated to this popular recycling program, and the number continues to grow. The best part of this program? Your shoe donation goes toward helping other athletes.

After you donate your shoes, they are ground up to make "Nike Grind," a material that is used to make playground facilities and athletic tracks. Instead of your shoes wasting away in a landfill, they provide a surface for other runners, bikers and sports fanatics.

Niketown on Michigan Avenue accepts donations of less than 10 pairs of shoes per person. Runners can also visit http://www.letmeplay.com/ reuseashoe/program to find their address for Nike's main recycling center and mail the shoes.

SHOE4AFRICA

Playground surfaces and athletic pavements are fantastic, especially if you want to make an impact on your local environment. However, donating your used soles to the global market is beneficial as well. One company, Shoe4Africa, accepts old shoes and donates them to African runners who would be unable to afford shoes any other way.

A donation to Shoe4Africa will not just help one runner, it also will support an organization that offers on-site AIDS testing at various races in different villages. For a continent that continues to be plagued by the disease and lack of awareness and preventive measures - this would help the cause. For more information on how to donate, check out www.shoe4africa.org.

WORKING BIKES

There are a vast number of opportunities for runners to help out both socially and environmentally with their used equipment, but what about athletes with slightly larger things to recycle? How on earth will your old bike make a difference?

Working Bikes is a great way to recycle your bike if you're in the Chicagoland area. This not-for-profit organization is staffed by approximately 100 dedicated volunteers.

Founder and volunteer Lee Ravenscroft is quick to admit that the catalyst for starting this cooperative was not originally out of concern for the environment. "I had worked in Nicaragua and witnessed how desperate people were [for bikes] whereas so much was discarded in the United States. A few of us started collecting bikes and putting them on Pastors for Peace caravans to Central America and Cuba," Ravenscroft said. However, the environmental benefit is undeniable, especially when people are so quick to upgrade equipment. "People discard their bikes when they have only a couple hundred miles on them. It's important to intercept these bikes before they are shredded," Ravenscroft said. "We give away more than 5,000 bikes a year internationally and locally." With partners in Guatemala, Cuba and the Gulf Coast, you can rest assured that your bike is providing necessary transportation without polluting the environment.

Copyright 2008 Chicago Athlete magazine