CREDIT: EMILY STEWART
If you need a new bike to commute to school, considering recycling your bicycle with the City of London's Community EnviroDepots.

When you want to buy a new bike, be sure to recycle your old one.

According to the City of London website, repairable bikes can be dropped off at the City’s Community EnviroDepot locations. After the bikes are fixed, they’re given to people in need. The City’s Facebook page shared a Big Bike Giveaway’s post from July 3 that said the Squeaky Wheel Bike Co-Op and Big Bike Giveaway repair the bicycles.

Daniel Hall, executive director for The London Cycle Link, said the Squeaky Wheel Bike Co-Op partnered with the Cross Cultural Learner Centre and Luso Community Services for the Bikes for Newcomers program. Bikes for Newcomers provides newcomers who need a bike, lights, and a lock. About 50 newcomers received bikes this year.

The Squeaky Wheel Bike Co-Op also sells affordable bikes, ranging from $100 to $300 for adult bikes and $10 to $100 for kids bikes.

“We’ve got lots of people with maybe bikes that are collecting dust and that someone who needs a bike can benefit from it,” Hall said. “So it’s a really good thing for keeping bikes out of the landfill and for getting bikes in the hands of the people that need them.”

The London Cycle Link advocates for safer cycling infrastructure in the city, organizes group ride events, and encourage cyclists to bike to work. Hall said the organization promotes the sustainability of cycling, noting that about 55 per cent of emissions from London’s households come from personal vehicles.

He added that cycling is more economical because you’re saving thousands of dollars you would be spending on a car and gas. Hall also encourages people to cycle more often for health benefits.

“We know that we need more physical activity built into our days and this is something if you can use it to, you know, go for a ride to get your groceries or to go to school or work,” he said. “You’ve built in your exercise for the day just getting there, which is great.”

The annual Big Bike Giveaway gives away free bikes. Monica Hodgson, one of the co-founders, said this year’s event at Argyle Mall saw over 1,500 people attending the event throughout the day, including more than 800 people in line picking up their bike.

“You’d have a family of five, maybe three people needed a bike, and the rest would spectate,” Hodgson said. “So we actually had cheering squads this year. It was pretty cool.”

She added the Big Bike Giveaway promotes the physical and mental health benefits of cycling, along with sustainability. She also noticed more people are reusing, which is part of Big Bike Giveaway’s mandate.

“People understand the use of reusing is just — if not more important, than recycling,” Hodgson said.

Big Bike Giveaway is taking a break from collecting bikes until April 2020, but is already planning for their next giveaway on Sept. 13, 2020 at Meredith Park.

Could Fanshawe be a bike recycling site?

Shelley Carr, London’s Bicycle Mayor, volunteered at Big Bike Giveaway this year and is a cycling advocate, working with the Cycling Advisory Committee at City Hall. She would like to see a bike recycling and donation program at the College, but said there’s a lot to it.

“That would be lovely, but it’s just tremendous resources,” Carr said. “Tremendous resources, and also a certain skill set to be able to know how to repair bicycles, and that’s where you see organizations like Big Bike Giveaway or Squeaky Wheel come in.”

Nicole Stefan, the vice-president of EnviroFanshawe, said in an email interview with Interrobang that she would like to see a bike recycling and donation program at Fanshawe. She said students who bus and drive to school deal with issues like inconsistent bus arrival times, paying for parking, and walking to the campus from the parking lot.

“For these students, biking could be the most effective way to get to campus. It is cost friendly, reliable, promotes healthy activity, and a much more sustainable way to travel,” Stefan said. “Most college students struggle to even pay tuition, so a program like this would be invaluable to the many students who can’t afford bikes on their own.”

The Fanshawe Student Union (FSU) offers a free bike sharing program for students called FSU Bikes. Fanshawe students can go to the Biz Booth to borrow a bike for up to three days.

Kevin “Beef” Masterson, the events and activities manager for the FSU, said that the FSU Bikes program, fronted by former FSU President Carlie Forsythe, has 10 bikes for students to borrow, with two of the bikes often requiring repairs. The bikes were brand new when the program began.

As far as bringing a bike recycling program to campus, Masterson said that if the bikes need to be replaced, donating the bikes to those who need them is something to consider. However, FSU Bikes will likely stay as is, because it’s a rental system versus needing a bike for permanent use.

“I think we’ll probably continue with the way it is now,” he said. “But when our bikes go out of rotation, then that sounds like an excellent way for us to get rid of them.”

Michelle Cong, Fanshawe College’s sustainability coordinator, said as far as she knows, the College is the only one with a free bike sharing program. She is working on designing a map that will show all of the on-campus bike racks, along with change rooms with showers for bikers wanting a shower after biking to campus. Gender-neutral washrooms will also be available on the map. Cong would like to see an improvement for the College’s cycling infrastructure and parking space.

“We need to have bike routes,” she said. “I know we have [a] professor leading the students designing [the] campus with bike routes, and I’m really looking forward to seeing that happen.”

Visit london.ca/envirodepots for more information on the Enviro Depots and on other materials that can be recycled.