Last week, and truthfully, the past two weeks, have been nuts down at the shop. We have received over 200 bicycle donations and we are barely keeping our heads above water as we have limited space in our basement to store all these bicycles.
The mass numbers of two-wheeled objects happened to come in due to three major donations, two from the same outfit. These are mostly bicycles people purchased and then ended up parking somewhere, leaving them for dead. Then the people who owned them ended up relieving themselves of these burdens once the opportunity arose to do so via a few organizations we have worked with.
I know it might sound exciting and all, but the reality is we probably get five to eight "keepers" out of every batch of fifty bikes we receive. Most of those are not very exciting, but will service needs in our communities well. The rest? Parts harvesting, opportunities for John Deere volunteers to come in and do community service by stripping these bikes down, and we keep it all out of our local landfill.
My over-all feeling about this is one of sadness. To think of the thousands of dollars burnt up on cheap, barely usable bikes, and bicycles which are fine, but never were put to their potential. I find it to be a sad commentary on consumerism. The waste is hard to look at sometimes.
So, I know what we are doing is a good thing, and I certainly find satisfaction in doing this, but what if I did not need to be employed at all doing what I do? Wouldn't that mean we would be living in a better world? I think so, and so yeah...... It is very thought provoking and humbling.
6 comments:
I feel like any bike with white tires is pretty much on a short one way trip from the big box store to the smelter.
to quote from the Canadian TV show Shoresy "if in doubt, go where ya needed."
Dang, Wall-e Ted. Thanks for writing from your lonely (and not) planet.
I hear ya. This is one of the reasons I left the I.C. bike library. It's also why I'm not disappointed to see bicycle prices rise; hopefully those who aren't serious about using them will pass them by. People who are serious will keep a quality used market healthy for those that can't afford, so your job is a necessary one, just busier than it should be for the market.
I find myself advising people that everything made today is worse than yesterday, is worse than five years ago, 30 yrs, etc, except bikes. Most real bikes will last them their life, their kid's life, & their grandkid's life, assuming they know what to buy & how to maintain for parts longevity. I still see ride-able, repairable bikes from the 1910-20's occasionally
I wonder if the same feelings happen to workers at used/ discarded/ donated houseware and clothing stores, junkyards, etc, where the sheer amount of old stuff is overwhelming. Maybe that's also partly to blame for how hard it is to clear out your own or someone else's clutter?
@Derek - That is an interesting point. Maybe this explains why when you clear out a bunch of clutter you feel better.
Post a Comment