CARBONDALE - Going green can be as easy as slipping off an old pair of flip flops and popping them into a collection bin.
Thanks to a promotion by TerraCycle, an international upcycling and recycling company, and clothing giant Old Navy, used flip flops can be recycled and turned into playground equipment.
CARBONDALE - Going green can be as easy as slipping off an old pair of flip flops and popping them into a collection bin.
Thanks to a promotion by TerraCycle, an international upcycling and recycling company, and clothing giant Old Navy, used flip flops can be recycled and turned into playground equipment.
The promotion is an example of upcycling, or converting previously hard-to-recycle materials into new materials or products.
The nationwide program began Friday and will continue through May 21 at any Old Navy store, including the Carbondale location.
Old Navy shoppers can deposit their used flip flops in colorful collection bins found inside the stores. TerraCycle will then recycle the flip-flops into playgrounds, which will be donated to communities around the country.
By bringing in these hard-to-recycle products to their local stores, consumers help keep waste out of their community landfills, according to a TerraCycle release.
One of the activities that many of Michigan Green Schools participate in is the recycling of used packaging and products such as chip bags, candy wrappers and juice pouches. The waste is collected through TerraCycle's Brigade program (www.terracycle.net), which pays the schools and nonprofits for their efforts and then recycles the material into cool products.
With funding in short supply across Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, folks are looking everywhere for extra money. Bain Elementary School Art Teacher Carrie Vizzini has found a creative way to earn a little extra money for her school. Through the TerraCycle program, available to any nonprofit, she's turning school trash into cash.
Since Vizzini pioneered the program at Bain in August of 2009, the school has received almost $2,500 from empty juice pouches, cookie and chip bags, plastic sandwich bags, energy bar wrappers, empty pens and markers, and other items.
She got the idea after buying a carton of juice pouches for her four-year-old daughter, Mia.
"I saw the TerraCycle website on the side of the carton and I looked it up online. When I thought about all the recyclable items that our students throw away everyday, I knew it would be a great idea. We could keep all that trash out of the landfill and earn money for our school," said Vizzini.
TerraCycle collecting items at Office Depot and Old Navy.
If you are doing some spring cleaning, don’t toss those old flip flops or used pens into the trash can—they can be recycled by
TerraCycle and kept out of the community landfills.
According to a TerraCycle press release, shoppers still have time Saturday (April 23) to bring 10 used pens, markers or mechanical pencils to
Office Depot at 569 Ritchie Highway and receive a coupon towards new Sanford products (maker of Sharpie, Expo, PaperMate).
Next door at
Old Navy in Severna Park, shoppers can deposit their used flip flops into collection bins inside the Old Navy store through May 21.
It takes a lot of flip-flops to build a playground.
That's one of those sentences I never expected to write, along the lines of, "It takes a lot of goldfish to fly an airplane." But yes, your standard informal footwear can be recycled into plastic lumber — and if you're sole inclined, you can do your part at any Old Navy store.
Through May 21, just dump 'em in the handy bin, and a company from Trenton, N.J., will take it from there. TerraCycle Inc., a humble ecological empire built around a product called worm poop, will use them to create four playgrounds that it will donate to as-yet-unselected lucky locations across the country.
