Recycle Your Cycle

I just came across a really interesting idea that they are doing in Sudbury, Ontario that we should have everywhere!  I have recently outgrown my bike and I know Dad’s got lots of other priorities so I haven’t been bugging him about buying me a new one.  We have actually been doing this in our family forever with everything from toys to clothes but its really exciting to see how it can work on a larger scale with a whole city!

The non-profit organization Rainbow Routes and the City of Sudbury has set up a Children’s bike exchange for this Saturday, June 16 in Tom Davies Square at 200 Brady St. from 10 am to 2 pm called “Second Bike Day”.  The event is designed to give people a chance to pass on their outgrown and gently used bikes to someone else a little smaller who can get good use out of it! 

I know I have kept my bike in perfect shape so I know my little brother will get plenty of good use out of it and if he takes care of it it should be in great shape still for the next person.  This even works for people who don’t have a bicycle to trade in, as long as you are willing to make a token donation you can still choose one to fit your size.  Of course, this is on a first-come-first-serve basis so I guess you will want to get there early if you don’t have an outgrown bike and children must be accompanied by an adult.  All the donations go towards a good cause too so it just makes sense all the way around.

I hope that enough people read this and decide that it would be a good idea to get going in every major city.  I guess it just needs to be sponsored and organized by whoever it willing to put in the time and effort.  Perhaps a bike shop that sells bikes which at the same time would benefit them by promoting their shop’s name.  However it gets done, I think its a great way for us to recycle (get it re- CYCLE hahaha ) these bikes which mostly are in excellent shape instead of just dumping them into a landfill somewhere. 

It’s something that we never think about anymore in our fast and disposable society.  Things are still good and just because we can’t use them anymore or they are taking up too much space we decide to throw them away so they take up room in a landfill instead of our homes. 

Anyway, I went searching on the internet and I found a couple of other cities that have bike exchange programs, so I’ve asked our webmaster to set up a link to post them.

If you know of any other programs, just let them know and they will add them to the list.  The list will be here:

http://greenplanet4kids.com/eco-links

I think its time we started finding ways of passing on the things we replace to other people who may be less fortunate or simply don’t like to contribute to the whole consumer cycle.  Maybe it’s a toilet or a sink that got replaced when you renovated the bathroom and is still perfectly fine.  Clean it up and you can’t even tell that it’s not brand new, why not let someone else install it in that new bathroom they just built instead of going out and buying a new one? If you can think of other links to lists of resources we can start, let me know and I’ll see what we can do!