MADISON, Wis. -- With more than 4,000 trophy shops around the country, there's a growing number of trophies collecting dust and filling landfills, and a local business is hoping to do something about it.

Not only has Madison family company Total Awards been a part of so many inspiring moments, but its quest to go green is helping nonprofits all over the country.

Inside Total Awards, Dave Gray sorts through all kinds of trophies.

"When you've been doing it for 30 years, you've seen just about everything you can imagine," said Gray, as he looked over the piles of old trophies coming into his business.

Gray's family business has been collecting unwanted trophies for the last two decades.

"There's always something you can use," said Gray. "You save it, you keep it out of the landfill."

"For years, people have been bringing their trophies and plaques, asking if we can do anything with them," said Gray's daughter, Janet, who is now in charge of the company.

This year, Total Awards is taking its trophy recycling campaign nationwide.

"And recently it came out that because of the economy, that nonprofits are really in need," said Janet Gray. "And that's when we turned the project around to be able to donate these back to the nonprofits."

It's a way to pay it forward, from a family that knows why these trophies are so important.

"To tell you the truth, it's a very subtle, indirect way of bragging," said Dave Gray.

For the man responsible for so many bragging rights, Dave's got just one trophy.

"Oh, I've still got it, and I'm not bringing it in here. It was last place in a curling tournament. And in curling, they give out a trophy if you show up," he said.

Gray said it's sometimes hard to throw out old trophies and that recycling them puts them to good use.

"To get rid of (trophies), to throw them in the garbage, that's a lot of pain. To give them to someone else to recycle, so somebody else could enjoy them, that's good."

Nonprofits looking for a chance to receive the trophies must be a 501C3 nonprofit to qualify.