Re-Cycling Accessories

Most people wouldn’t want to comb their hair with an old bicycle part in the morning. Unless, maybe, it was a Handlebar Brush--one of many fashion accessories Littlearth makes from recycled handle grips, tassels, reflectors, inner tubes and other urban detritus.

“We started this business because we wanted to do something that was creative and had a positive social impact,” says Rob Brandegee, a Pittsburgh native who co-founded the company with his girlfriend, Ava DeMarco, in 1993.

The couple began the business with a workshop in their basement, but they soon ran out of storage space for the used inner tubes they were stockpiling. When their work space began overflowing into their backyard and looking more and more like a scrap heap, Brandegee and DeMarco moved to a larger space.

Lucky for them, sales were taking off. Now in its sixth year of business, Littlearth employs 40 people, and its products are sold in more than 1,000 stores nationwide. Last year alone, the company recycled more than 60 tons of rubber, 70,000 license plates and 2 million bottle caps.

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Contact Littlearth at https://www.littlearth.com or call (412) 471-0909.