This image from ecouterre.com shows one unexpected way to recycle denim.

I’ve had a couple of pairs of old blue jeans in the trunk of my car for several months with the intent of finding a place to recycle them.  Normally, the obvious choices were to either take them to our clothing room at the church or give them to Goodwill, but these jeans are too worn out to be given away like that.

I had heard that blue jeans could be recycled as insulation and that Ford even uses recycled jeans in making the carpet backing for the 2012 Ford Focus. (Forbes Magazine: Ford Focus Uses Recycled Jeans)  However, I haven’t found a place locally to make that happen.

Then, the other day I learned that Levi’s from the 1800′s could be worth thousands of dollars and even some from the 1900′s could still have significant value, but my jeans weren’t quite that old. This site has more information on checking old pairs of Levi’s to see if they may have value. (Mademan.com: How to Find Value of a Vintage Levi Jean.)

I quickly discovered that a lot of people have been thinking about what to do with old blue jeans and have made some very useful things from discarded jeans. Here is just a small sampling of  the things I found.  Links to the how to guides are included.

• Blue Jean Quilts – How to Make Blue Jean Quilts
• Purses – How to Make a Purse from Blue Jeans
• Rugs – How to Make Becca’s Jean Rag Rug
• Book Covers – Jeans Book Cover
• Coasters – How to Make Coasters out of Blue Jeans
• Many More Items – Twenty-five Things to Do with Old Jeans

So, what did I decide to do with my two pairs of jeans? I would like to give them away to someone who will make one of the items listed above or maybe another item he or she would like to make. Just leave me information (under the comments – I won’t post your personal information) on where to send the jeans and what you plan to make.  All I ask is that sometime this year you send me a picture (or pictures) of your project (which I will gladly post).