If there's one thing my son needs on a regular basis, it's shoes. He seems to outgrow his shoes faster than I can keep up. At the beginning of the summer, I noticed the back of his heels were red and realized his shoes were way too small. Sometimes he barely wears a pair of shoes before he's on to the next size.

If that sounds familiar, then you might be interested in donating your unused shoes. Soles4Souls is a group that donates new and gently used shoes to people in 125 countries.  According to their website, Americans threw away more than 300 million pairs of shoes. I can't imagine a better way to keep good shoes out of landfills than giving them to organizations that give them new life.

If you have well-worn athletic shoes that you thought about tossing out, Nike has a program that actually recycles all brands and turns them into athletic and playground surfaces. The program has collection sites throughout the country. By the way, NG Kids received the Guinness World Record for the longest chain of shoes and we recorded a video of our collection of the shoes that we sent to Nike!

A way to make a bigger impact is to get your co-workers, friends, and family involved. You can make one big donation by organizing your own shoe drive. With back-to-school time around the corner, this might be the perfect time to go through your closets before you buy new shoes for fall.