Earlier in the week, I had a to-the-point email from Cubby asking:

how can i recycle a leather dog collar?

My first thought was keeping using it/pass it on – but then I remembered that we’ve got an old leather collar of Lily’s here after the metal work rusted and snapped off in a not-easy-to-fix way – so it’s possibly Cubby is in the same position. (I’m rather annoyed about the rusting as I purposefully went for what looked to be a good quality collar, with the hope it would last and last. Bah!)

Basically, what we’ve been left with is a strip of pretty tough leather, which is shaped and holed at one end.

It’s not easy to recycle random leather things – logistically more than anything, as the fabric and shoe bins that collect other bits are usually more geared towards items that can be sent overseas for reuse rather than industrial reclamation so they probably won’t know what to do with it, and it might just end up in a bin.

A leather strap like that though could be reused in a number of ways – you might be able to upcycle a collar from a small dog into a bracelet/cuff (like you might do with an old belt). A longer collar may work as a replacement strap on an old bag/luggage, or as a brace in the garden — we’re going to be planting out some fruit trees soon which will need staking, Lily’s nice brown collar would make a strong alternative to rope etc.

Any other ideas?