Tackling Waste – One Bike at a Time
“It’s estimated roughly 15 million bikes are discarded by their owners every year. And, unsurprisingly, many of these unwanted bikes end up in landfills.”
One thing we’re passionate about at One Tree is reducing waste in our community. And, operating within an area which houses and attracts so many bikers, helping reduce bike waste could have a big impact on the volume of landfill we amass.
Over the past couple of months we’ve been tackling this waste with the help of local bike servicing technician and guide David from French Cycling Holidays. Thanks to some generous donations from our community we’ve had a steady flow of pre-loved bikes, previously gathering dust in garages, or destined for landfill. These are then serviced and repaired by David to ensure that they’re road worthy and safe, before being sold – with the funds raised invested into our environmental projects and used to keep the community hub open.
Upskilling the Community
In today’s throwaway society it’s all too easy to replace equipment which isn’t working properly, or feels a little old and tired. One clear solution to this problem, is to upskill people to service their bikes so that they remain on the road and out of landfill. Which is why we’re really excited to be teaming up this interseason with komoot, the route planning and navigation tech app, to bring the Ride & Repair series to our community hub in Bozel. This partnership is a natural fit due to shared values relating to sustainability and community.
Sponsored by komoot, the series will be free to attend and is designed to train locals in bike servicing and repair. The workshops have been crafted to give attendees the confidence to adjust or fix minor things while out on the road or trails, including training on how to do pre-ride safety checks, change a flat tire, adjust your gears and clean your bike.
It’s not all just about the bikes though. We’ll also be running clothing repair workshops, tackling another waste problem relating to the bike industry.
After the workshops, to put your handiwork to the test, we’ll be going out on a group ride on one of the fantastic road circuits we have in the valley.
Fancy joining us?
Fancy joining one of these sessions to improve your skills and meet like-minded locals? The sessions will be starting on Tuesday 18th May, with places limited to maintain current safety restrictions. We’ll be adding all the details to a Facebook event shortly, but you can register your interest in the meantime by contacting us on Facebook.
We hope to see you there!
