Kathy Kelly is a 39-year-old single mother who works as a law librarian for a law firm in Erie, Pennsylvania. The industrious recycler has created a handcrafted line of bags she calls “BookBags“  using  repurposed book covers from outdated lawbooks. We found her and her fabulous bags over at Twitter.

One of her tasks at her firm Knox, McLaughlin, Gornall & Sennett is keeping the legal reference books up-to-date. As laws change, the books are constantly being replaced: Sadly, most of them have no distributional value once removed from the library shelves. As a person with a concern for the environment, she was interested in recycling the old books, but discovered it was difficult to find a recycler who would even take books, especially hard-covered books.  After a great amount of effort she was finally able to convince one of the local recycling companies to take them, but she would have to remove the covers first.

United States Code Annoted

About two years ago, Kathy returned to work after a surgery and came back to discover a giant pile of mail that included volumes of updates.  One update, the United States Code Annoted (pictured here) included nine volumes covered in gorgeous maroon leather-like material.  She knew she would have to remove the covers to recycle the paper of the book, but it still seemed like such a waste of that beautiful fabric to throw it away (not to mention, creating plenty of garbage).  For a few months, she simply collected the book covers; she didn’t know what she was going to do with them, only that she would figure something out.

One day, in one of those “eureka!” moments familiar to many inventors, Kathy envisioned a small purse her mother had given her when she was younger, and started playing with the idea.

Kathy’s first creations were tiny little wallet-type pouches, but she continued trying out new ideas. She has no professional seamstress or manufacturing background (besides those annual Halloween costumes Moms are so good at creating) so there was plenty of trial and error. Ultimately, she created an entire line of stylish and practical book bags from these recycled covers.

The high-quality bags are fused to a strong interfacing for extra durability and each purse is fully lined and features a strong magnetic button/snap closure. They vary in size from as small as 9×12 inches to as large as 10×16 inches, depending on the size of book cover and/or how many covers she uses to create the bag.  Prices vary based on how much time they take to manufacture (each bag can as long as seven hours to design and manufacture by hand) and the rarity of the book, and each bag on her website is hand-made and completely unique. She offers a satisfaction guarantee on the high quality of each bag she sells.

Most of the books she uses are outdated legal books from  the Erie County Law Library, though three of the biggest law firms in Erie and many smaller firms also recycle their books through BookBags. She also buys books at ‘last chance’ local libary sales. So far this year, she has recycled more than 4,500 pounds of paper and kept hundreds of book covers out of the landfill.

If you’ve got a special book, she can even “Pursonalize” it for you, as long as it’s bound from bookbinding fabric, not paper.

It’s a great way to repurpose something destined for landfill and each one is completely unique. Women who work in the automotive industry especially covet a Harvey’s Seatbelt Bag to work their hobby into their fashion. I imagine these BookBags could become the ultimate expression of a woman’s legal interest as well. They’re fabulous even if you’re not a lawyer, so consider one for yourself, or your next special gift-giving occasion! Check them out at www.bookbags.us.com.