Every election season thousands of candidates' signs line the street. When the election is over, most of them end up in a landfill, but one Walton County man plans to clean up his community, one sign at a time.

You see them in every county, signs displaying the names of hopeful candidates. But when the election is over and the signs come down, a lot of plastic is carted off to the landfill.

John Magee, a candidate hopeful himself, owns Hi-Tec Laboratories in Freeport, a 15-year-old company that makes plastic toys and bottles sold around the world. He says he came up with the idea to recycle the signs after a candidate asked him a question.

John Magee said, "What am I going to do with all these signs if I don't get elected? And I was sitting there going, 'You know, I wonder if I could recycle them?’ And then I just put the gears in motion."

Magee's employees now have an added responsibility, recycling election signs. Management expects to recycle nearly 5,000 pounds of old signs in Walton County alone before the election in November.

The recycled plastic will be used to mold bottles, playground equipment, even car parts.

"This company sells a lot of our stuff to Hyundai, parts for cars. So every time I see a Hyundai car coming down the road, I always say, 'Hey, there goes some of our junk.' "

The crew's project manager says, although recycling the signs is more expensive for the company, it decreases Hi-Tec's carbon footprint, and that's something every employee believes in.

Joe Blalock, Plant Manager, said, "One thing they don't make more of is land. I don't know who would want to raise their children on ground that's contaminated. Everyone should be aware of that and take steps to recycle, because there's where it ends up."

Candidates wishing the join the cause can drop off election signs at Hi-Tec Laboratories on Highway 20 in Freeport. Hi-Tech will accept the signs through election season and recycle them for free.