When I was a kid out on the farm you used old car tires or tractor tires as swings. Tie a rope through the tire, loop it up over a strong branch and you had a swing that could keep kids amused for hours.

Of course, even though I’m not that old, back then there weren’t nearly as many old tractor and car tires as there are today so disposing of old tires wasn’t as big a problem as it is now. Back then most tires went into landfill because we didn’t understand the need to be environmentally friendly. Sadly today many old tires still get dumped although that is beginning to change.

In some countries old tires are being dropped into coastal waters to form artificial reefs. These artificial reefs encourage growth in marine life and fish stocks and not far from where I live an artificial reef made up of tires and a number of old ships that have been scuttled form a reef that provides some of the best fishing on the coast.

While there are limits to the number of artificial reefs that you can have off a coastline there doesn’t seem to be any limit to the number of used car and tractor tires you can have. That means that the hunt is on to discover other environmentally friendly ways to recycle old tires.

One very forward thinking fashion designer has come up with a stunning collection of handbags and shoulder bags made from old tractor tires. When you see them it’s hard to believe that the materials used in these bags were once part of a huge tractor tire but that’s exactly where they came from.

Tires aren’t the only things from old tractors and cars that can be recycled into fashion items. A small jewelry company … Sword and Fern … produce some exquisite earrings made from recycled … or as they call it, ‘repurposed’ … car parts and you can see them here.

There are a growing number of fashion designers out there who are looking at ways of recycling so if you’re genuinely environmentally friendly you should be looking for the products these people are producing and encouraging others to buy their products.