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With the recent Los Angeles marathon, I started wondering – first, how do runners manage to run more than 20 miles and not die? (Okay, maybe that’s just me…) And second, when they do train for said killer marathons, what do they do with their worn-out running shoes? Luckily, the answer presented itself when I ran (so to speak) across a site called RecycledRunners.com. This site that offers the web’s first national shoe recycling and donation directory. It provides an awesome source of information for those interested in sparing their running shoes from a landfill burial. You can also buy a new pair of sneakers on the site’s retail partner, Zappos. Do you have a shoe donation program you want to get the word out on? The site has an easy way to add it to the directory. And best of all, each month RecycledRunners.com donates 50% of the proceeds of purchases made through Zappos to a featured Charity of the Month.

Founder Dorian Quispe, an experienced marathoner, started the site after an adventurous race in Peru called the Inca Trail marathon. After the race organizer suggested the runners bring their old shoes to donate to trail Sherpas, Quispe decided to take the idea global. A 2007 marathon in Switzerland further cinched the deal after Quispe was impressed at how very clean and environmentally conscious the Swiss were. (They make good chocolate, too!) As Quispe puts it, “After training and dedicating yourself to be a marathon runner, finding a green place for your shoes should be the easy part. Running is hard, giving is easy.”