The local Old Navy clothing store is collecting flip-flops that will be processed into playground material. The collection is part of a TerraCycle nationwide recycling program in which pens are being collected from Office Depot stores and flip-flops from Old Navy sites. In York, Old Navy is located in the Manchester Crossroads Shopping Center at 351 Loucks Road in Manchester Township, according to TerraCycle publicist Megan Yarnell. Collection bins are located at the front of the store.

Recycle: Bring used writing instruments, regardless of brand, to Office Depot at 4297 Meridian St. in Bellingham. They will be sent to TerraCycle Inc. and turned into new office-supply products such as trash cans and desk organizers. The collection runs through Saturday, April 23. People who bring in 10 pens, pencils or markers will receive a coupon toward a new product from Sanford, a pen company. Recycle: Drop off your used flip-flops at Old Navy in Bellis Fair mall, so they can be recycled and used at four public playgrounds in the country. Look for designated collection bins. The effort continues through May 21. It is a partnership between Old Navy and TerraCycle Inc.

TerraCycle will take hard-to-recycle items or garbage such as juice pouches, chip bags, toothbrushes and pens and work with companies to reuse them in backpacks, park benches, cutting boards and other items.

Fri 22

Today is Earth Day, so do your part to keep our world beautiful. Start by grabbing your old flip flops and heading to Old Navy at Town Square, which has teamed up with TerraCycle to produce The Flip Flop Replay. Through May 21, Old Navy will collect flip flops, which will then be recycled into four public playgrounds around the country.

Candy wrappers: These aren’t accepted in your blue bin, however you can join or start a local “brigade” of collectors for many hard-to-recycle items, including candy wrappers, and earn cash for your school or nonprofit by signing up at www.terracycle.net.

Dropps laundry detergent is already a leader in the detergent industry in environmental awareness due to their lack of bulky packaging. Certified by the U.S. EPA Design for the Environment, their detergent packs simply dissolve in the washer and the only thing left is the lightweight outer pouch which until today was not recyclable by local collectors. But, now that problem is gone because Dropps has partnered with TerraCycle to collect and recycle the plastic bags and make Dropps a zero waste product. Recycling is easy because TerraCycle offers free postage-paid shipping labels on their website and offers donations to charity for each pouch recycled. Learn more about Dropps and TerraCycle and celebrate a clean Earth Day tomorrow!

You'll always fail first. Imagine starting your own company, creating a life-changing, world-saving product, and pouring every dollar, minute and ounce of sanity into cultivating your business. Imagine then realizing one day that your product is in some way irrelevant or unmarketable. What do you do? Sure, you could give up. But Tom Szaky, the CEO of TerraCycle, says it's easy—just change your business model and keep going. Szaky writes in The New York Times' You're the Boss column today about how his company survived its first, second, third and fourth business models and still remains open to more changes. Because in business, there's always room for a plan D.

Tom Szaky Founder, TerraCycle "I think only if you are a service company trying to inspire confidence in your clients -- i.e. lawyers and accountants. If you are not one of the above, I wouldn't have a dress code. In fact, at TerraCycle, we have a "negative dress code." You shouldn't show up in a suit and tie. You'll be asked to dress down."