Don’t Throw Your Old Bike in the Trash Can
In the villages and large cities of China, there are graveyards of crumpled bicycles in wastelands. Local governments have long struggled to decide what to do with the millions of abandoned bicycles due to an initial oversupply to support the country’s bike-sharing program (which later collapsed after major companies filed for bankruptcy ).
Bicycles, broken or not, are of great recyclability value here in the US because their scrap metal and tires can still be recycled. Therefore, you have many options when you decide you are done with an old bike – depending on your local resources.
Some roadside recycling programs may already accept bicycles; to check, you should search the Internet for your local program rules or use the Earth911 locator . Look for bicycles (or bicycle tires) using your zip code. If your program accepts them, it should appear on the first page of results. If not, use these results to find other places to recycle or donate your bike.
You may find that these results may show local bike shops, recovery points, or trash services such as 1-800-Got-Junk . If you choose to bring your bike or bike parts to any of these facilities, or use a garbage collection service, ask how your bike is recycled. (According to the 1-800-Got-Junk website, they will bring your bike to a recycling facility or donate it, but using this service obviously comes at a cost.)
If you’d rather donate your bike, this is an acceptable option, even if it’s not in the best condition. Look for local nonprofit programs that accept bicycles for reuse. In New York, you can donate your bike to the Bike New York Recycle-a-Bicycle program; they will repair donated bicycles or parts and sell them. The proceeds go towards their cycling training program. (Or, you can sell your bike on sites like Craigslist or BikeExchange .)
When it comes time to find a new bike, consider buying something that has been recycled or used. Just be sure to take a test ride, check the brakes and look for any kinks, dents or rust as we wrote earlier . And if you want to experiment with other eco-friendly bikes, you can even buy bamboo bikes. Again, you should test the ride whenever possible, in case the bamboo bike isn’t to your liking.