This exciting project, funded by the Environment Protection Agency’s Green Enterprise Innovation for a Circular Economy fund, will see us examine new techniques for remanufacturing discarded bicycles.
The Problem
Currently, we repair bicycles for sale with our ReCycle Your Cycle program, teaching valuable cycle mechanic skills to our trainees and putting bikes which would otherwise be discarded back into use.
The bikes are donated via Galway City Council’s Recycling Centre – but not all the bikes are saveable. Many have surface rust or damage that makes them unsuitable for repair and resale. This means we are currently only able to salvage around 20% of the bikes that are discarded.
The Project
The project will look to create new techniques for remanufacture which all us to increase the percentages of bikes we repair and decrease the numbers shipped offshore for carbon-intensive recycling processes. We’ll find ways to remove the rust and repaint for as “an new look”.
At the same time, we’ll design a new circular economy business model based on selling the bikes as a branded, remanufactured product. We’ll share our insights on both the processes and the business model with other SMEs and social enterprises. And we’ll create jobs and secure even more opportunities to teach circular economy skills to our trainees, growing the base for the circular economy in the west of Ireland.
Watch this space! We’ll update the project details as we go and share our frame remanufacturing journey.