One of the greatest challenges in the chemical looping combustion (CLC) of solid fuels, is the development of an oxygen carrier material that is reactive, attrition resistant, and that can be prepared at reasonable cost. Recent efforts in oxygen carrier development have followed two primary approaches, being (1) the use of natural ores such as ilmenite or (2) developing highly attrition resistant and reactive synthetic materials. These approaches both have shortcomings, namely the low reactivity and incompatibility of ores with solid fuel CLC and the high cost as well as low durability of synthetic materials. Here, a different approach is taken where attrition is assumed inevitable, and the recycle of spent oxygen carrier materials is incorporated into oxygen carrier manufacture. For solid fuel CLC, Cu-based oxygen carriers attrit and collect with fly ash. Copper oxides are more reactive with nitric acid than most ash materials meaning that a copper nitrate rich leachate can be generated. This copper nitrate stream can then be reused in oxygen carrier synthesis by impregnation. For proof of concept, leaching data is provided to indicate that copper oxides are selectively leached. Impurity containing oxygen carriers were also synthesized and analyzed to prove that minor impurity concentrations (from the leaching process) are acceptable and even improve oxygen carrier performance in some cases. Furthermore, various cases are proposed based on the composition of spent materials as the degree of copper oxidation and type of solid fuel dictate leaching residence times, and general processing intensity.