St. Scholastica Academy in Covington, Louisiana, is embracing sustainability through a unique partnership with Ecore, a company specializing in performance surfacing. As part of its outdoor running track renovation, the all-girls Catholic school took part in Ecore’s TRUcircularity program, which is designed to reclaim and recycle old rubber track materials that would otherwise end up in landfills.

The project, coordinated through a regional athletic track contractor working closely with Ecore, led to the reclamation of approximately 30,000 pounds of used track material. That material was transported to Ecore’s recycling facility in York, Pennsylvania, where it was processed into reusable raw materials.

“When we learned the old track material would be recycled instead of sent to a landfill, it really resonated with our values as a school,” said Sister Mary Elizabeth, principal of St. Scholastica Academy. “We’re proud to have contributed to a sustainable solution and to provide our students with a beautiful new track that supports both their performance and the planet.”

Ecore notes that the TRUcircularity program is built on three main pillars: responsible recovery, efficient processing, and purposeful reuse. The company works directly with facility owners and contractors to recover eligible surfacing materials. Once received at one of its manufacturing sites, Ecore uses proprietary technologies to clean, grind, and reprocess the materials, transforming them into new high-performance flooring products.

These products are specifically engineered to meet the demands of sports, wellness, and commercial facilities by offering features like shock absorption, slip resistance, sound control, and durability.

“TRUcircularity allows us to take real ownership over the full lifecycle of our products,” said Steve Hayes, Ecore’s vice president of strategic partnerships. “Instead of sending used surfacing to a landfill, we’re giving it a second life—reducing waste and conserving natural resources while continuing to deliver high-performance flooring solutions.”

In addition to supporting sustainability, the St. Scholastica Academy project also provided Ecore with a valuable opportunity to test and improve its outdoor track reclamation methods. The company said insights gained from the process will help refine TRUcircularity into a more scalable model for future projects across the U.S.

With this collaboration, Ecore and St. Scholastica Academy demonstrate how environmentally conscious choices can be integrated into school infrastructure upgrades, benefitting both students and the broader community.

Originally reported by Haley Rischar in CD Recycler.