The Award for the Best Use of Recycled Items Goes To...

In honor of America Recycles Day, I've decided to focus my daily shopping spree around some of the really great, unusual, ingenious, perhaps slightly bizarre items that my fellow Etsians have created using predominantly recycled materials. We've all seen the clocks made from records and tupperware lids, and the flattened wine bottle trays, and some other relatively commonplace recycled items. Today I hope I'll be sharing some items with you that you've never seen before! If I actually gave out an award for the best use of recycled items, these would be some of the top contenders - Enjoy!

Talk to someone from any law enforcement office in any major city in the world, or for that matter, any college campus security office and they will tell you that one of their number one problems is abandoned bicycles. Many of them of course have been stripped of anything that wasn't locked down, and unfortunately many of these end up in landfills or junkyards. Lampcycle has found a wonderful way to put bike frames to good use in items like this Red Bike Fork Lamp - it's beautiful, it's functional, and it's a great use of just such bike parts as well as some other recyclables!






Neckties... most men will tell you they have an overabundance of them, and judging from some of the collections I've seen in thrift shops or at garage sales, there are definitely many neckties looking for a new purpose in life. Glamarita turns them into some truly beautiful women's clothing like this TIE ME UP TIE ME DOWN Blue and Gold NECKTIE Halter. Sexy, sassy, and best of all eco-friendly, I can't think of a better way to put all of those great neckties together in one place for a look that sure to be a hit!






I realize I have dogs on the brain this weekend with everything going on here at home, and I remembered an item I had put in a treasury a while back and thought it would also be a perfect item for today's topic. This Lap of Luxury Urban Cowgirl dog bed from XanARu is definitely an imaginative use of repurposed jeans and other upholstery fabric - and it may even give your favorite lap dog the sense that you're there even when you're not!






Enough of the truly useful... I wanted to get in at least one (somewhat?) bizarre, unique, unusual (I'll let you decide what the best word to describe it would be) recycled piece. But which one to choose? The cow femur necklace? The Barbie doll head holiday ornament? No, I had to go with this Crazy Chip Bag Headpiece from BoringSidney (Boring? Hardly!) I'm not quite sure where anyone would wear it, but you have to believe it would definitely be a great ice-breaker and conversation starter! Kudos for imagination!




Today's shopping spree just goes to show that there is probably very little that can't be repurposed and/or recycled and put to good use. All it takes is imagination to make it work!

Happy Sunday!