Transport in Waverley makes up about 20% of our community greenhouse gas emissions. While Waverley Council supports active and low emissions forms of transport like walking and cycling, a pressing challenge lies in ensuring old bikes and scooters don’t get dumped and stay out of landfills. Fortunately, there are organisations that focus on restoring, reusing, and recycling bikes at their end of life. Read on to hear how local building manager Simon Fong teamed up with Revolve Recycling to tackle the issue of abandoned bikes at his Bondi Junction apartment building.
Simon, how did you discover abandoned bikes at your building?
My name is Simon Fong, and I am a building manager at an apartment complex on Spring Street in Bondi Junction. I have previously worked with Waverley Council as part of their Building Futures program, which helped our building save money on our common area energy and water bills.
After our success in the Building Futures program, I was keen to find other ways to improve sustainability at our building. During our annual clean, I discovered a large number of abandoned bikes in the garage. Before removing them, I placed multiple notices in the building and on the bikes to ask residents to claim bikes they were still using. Then, after 2-months, I was faced with the challenge of what to do with the unclaimed bikes.
How did you find Revolve recycling, and what was the process of working with them to collect the bikes?
Waverley Council put me in contact with Revolve Recycling, a company that aims to recover, recycle and redeploy bikes, e-bikes and scooters. I reached out to the team at Revolve, explaining that we had at least 20 abandoned bikes.
We organised a pick-up in the following weeks, and since we had more than 10 bikes, this service was free. (There is a fee of $5 per bike for up to 9 bikes.) The collection day went really smoothly. They confirmed when the driver left their workshop, and Pete Shmigel, the owner of Revolve Recycling, arrived 30 minutes later with his van. He quickly loaded the bikes in while explaining the recycling process and the importance of their work.
Hi Pete, can you tell us about your social enterprise, Revolve Recycling?
Revolve Recycling has both a social enterprise and a charity arm. In just two years of operation, we have collected 9300 bikes, refurbished 2260 and recycled 7000 for scrap metal, rubber and e-waste. This recycling has saved 100 tonnes of waste from landfills and 250 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. Only brand-name bikes, which undergo an 18-point check and are fully warrantied, are considered for resale. While children's bikes fit for refurbishment are donated.
Why are bikes such an issue, and what are the future challenges?
In Australia, approximately 300,000 bikes each year end up in landfills, and it is estimated that in 10 years, 10% of these will be e-bikes. E-bikes present a growing challenge due to the complexity of their batteries, but Revolve is accredited to manage these batteries safely. In the future, we'd like to see a product stewardship scheme to incorporate waste management and disposal costs into a bike's overall cost.
How can Waverley residents get involved and support sustainable bike ownership and recycling?
- Bike owners - Keep your bike well maintained through an annual service at a bike shop or look out for local bike maintenance workshops.
- Households - Individual households with unused or old bikes can contact Revolve and pay $5/bike for a collection service or you can drop off at a local collection point, such as 99 Bikes in Bondi Junction.
- Community collection – Reach out to your neighbours and organise a community bike collection; if you have more than nine bikes, Revolve will collect them for free.
- Strata Buildings– If you are a building manager with unwanted bikes, like Simon, contact Revolve to organise a collection.
- Purchase a refurbished bike from Revolve – Receive a 6-month mechanical warranty and free service in the first three months. Click here to see what bikes are for sale.
- Schools - Contact Revolve Recycling to organise a maintenance workshop or collection day.
- Bike stores – Looking for a bike recycling service? The NSW Environment Protection Authority supports Revolve in creating circularity in the bike industry through the Green Wheels program.
