Throughout the 2023 season, Markham and Newmarket Cycles partnered with York Region Solid Waste to conduct an amazing new program through their Circular Economy Initiatives Fund. Called ‘Recycle to Ride’, the program allowed people to sign up to receive a free refurbished bicycle and learn some hands-on basic bike maintenance skills. This year, 272 participants came out to participate in in the program.
People of all ages attended to pick up a new way to get around, replace the bike their kids had recently outgrown, get familiar with their local bike hub, and gain some knowledge in basic bike maintenance. At Markham and Newmarket Cycles, we have always worked to break down the barriers that stop people from cycling and know that buying a bike can be one of those major hurdles. Through Recycle to Ride, we gave 244 bikes to community members for free and stripped 58 unusable bikes for parts. We’re so thrilled that the program allowed us to accelerate our capacity to increase bike access in Markham, Newmarket, and beyond.
The program had many other benefits, not only for the individual participants, but also for the community at large. Not only are more people now equipped with a working bicycle, but through the Recycle to Ride program, we also helped to reduce thousands of kilograms of waste and increase awareness around active transportation and the concept of a circular economy. Between Markham Cycles and Newmarket Cycles, we picked up over 3,200 kilograms of bikes from 2 participating waste facilities in York Region. That’s the weight of an elephant! Even more bicycles were donated directly to the bike hubs by local community members.
This program couldn’t have been successful without the help of our dozens of volunteer mechanics who made hundreds of discarded bikes roadworthy again. In cases where it was impossible to refurbish a bike back into working order, we worked together to break them down into valuable replacement parts, ultimately creating as little waste as possible. Fixing discarded bikes comes with a lot of challenges and through working on them, volunteers learned how to deal with rusted fasteners, find compatibility between parts when turning 2 broken bikes into 1 working one, and so much more.
The final giveaway day was held at Markham Cycles on October 24th, which marked the end of Recycle to Ride 2023. Thank you to our fantastic group of volunteers and the supportive team at York Region Solid Waste for helping us exceed our goals and expectations for the program. We can’t wait to continue running programs like this in the future.