More than 10,000 athletic shoes were dropped off at Honolulu Hale today as part of Earth Day recycling effort.

Recycle-a-shoe 2010 will be used to make sporting facility sufaces and will mean that much less waste will find its way into the landfill, said Hawaii nature Center executive director Gregory Dunn, a co-sponsor of the event.

Most of the shoes were dropped off at a curbside drive-through on King Street, fronting Honolulu Hale today.

The program moves to Kauai for collection from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Vidinha Stadium, during the county age group track meet. Shoes also may be dropped off at all seven fire stations through Friday.

Schools ere invited to participate and will receive prizes for participating from Best Buy Hawaii for those who collected the most shoes in their grade divisions. Winners in the kindergarten through sixth grade are: Jonah Birch, sixth grade at St. John Vianney School for 156 shoes; the kindergarten class at St. Philomena Early Learning Center for 144 shoes; and Casey and Caden Duncan, 6 and 4 years old for 76 shoes.

In the grade seven through 12 category, the winners are: Matt Ong, 10th grade at Maryknoll High School for 68 shoes; Tony Genco, 11th grade at Iolani School for 32 shoes: Kylie Bluemke, eighth grade at Maryknoll School for 30 shoes.