Staying in step with the eco-trend has a lot of dogs wearing recycle symbol shirts and eating from responsibly harvested wooden bowls – but while these are steps in the right direction they do not actually have an impact on the environment. Enter Shannon Ritscher, a graphic designer/stay at home mom who wanted to teach her children about recycling by re-using household materials and donated belts to create beautiful dogs collars. The lesson was learned and since then has turned into a custom recycled collar empire! Greenbelts has been on the handmade super-store Etsy for a little bit less than a year and already has a huge fan base. The collars and cuff sets that Shannon creates eschew the typical nutty-crunchy organic style exhibited by most recycled garb and relies heavily on her graphic design background. Using various old belts donated by her Seattle neighbors – Ms. Ritscher embellishes the collars with doorbells, washers, old buttons, military badges and anything else that is thrown away. And since the decorative touches are all based on whatever materials are at hand each collar is totally unique. The collars available from Greenbelts Etsy page online – range in size from XS – L with prices ranging from $20 – $45.