Councils landfilling bikes

When i'm not cycling to work, I walk in. There are quite a few bike racks that I pass when walking to work, and every few months the council goes around checking the bike racks and marking bikes that may have been abandoned.

I once spotted a good looking Kona bike that would have been good for a friend of mine that was tagged up, so i went up calling the council (H&F) to see if there was a legal means to getting the bike after the period of notice was up. It turns out that due to H&S concerns, they won't pass the bike on to the public and instead landfill them.

This, to me, seems to be a wasted opportunity. These bikes would be great for a community project in taking these bikes, doing them up and reselling on cycle to work schemes or similar.

in holland, the local council's clear bikes then put them in a depot,after approx 3 months I think they are auctioned off, you have to be a registered bike trader to buy, and they tend to be in quite large lots
would they really be landfill in uk? surely would have bio degrading issues, 'would make more sense if the old metal was scrapped , no?

I'm with you here Jared. I think the major stations are cleared out every so-often too. Surely they could sell them clearly stating they are not in a rideable state (even if this is not the case) or maybe as parts only? Would this not get around any liability concerns?

And slightly off-topic, does anyone know have councils stopped the public taking dumped bikes from local tips? I was categorically told I couldn't take/buy what looked to be a perfectly servicable old Raleigh from my local tip due to 'Health and Safety'.

I'll check what happens here in Hackney.

http://www.fietsdepothaaglanden.nl/

be good if something like the weee directive was implemented for bikes

Police auction site has job lots of bikes that have been seized, if you're interested.

they used to have a police bike auction off garrat lane in wandsworth
"General Auctions in Wandsworth sell bikes every other Monday."

And slightly off-topic, does anyone know have councils stopped the public taking dumped bikes from local tips? I was categorically told I couldn't take/buy what looked to be a perfectly servicable old Raleigh from my local tip due to 'Health and Safety'.

There's probably some insurance related or other policy which prohibits people removing things from council tips (I guess due to fear of getting sued) but I reckon there's a fair chance that any bike in reasonable condition would unofficially get picked up by some contractor or other and ebayed.

I know that my particular council gives bikes abandoned on its own property to a charity. I assume this is one of the local bike repair /sales CICs, though I hope not the one that managed to make a total dog's breakfast of my own bike when I left it for a 'service'

And slightly off-topic, does anyone know have councils stopped the public taking dumped bikes from local tips? I was categorically told I couldn't take/buy what looked to be a perfectly servicable old Raleigh from my local tip due to 'Health and Safety'.

Website for my local council states that you can buy bikes from the tip, so off I toddled last year, found the bikes stacked up hidden in a remote corner, behind a PortaKabin, razor wire and a sign saying 'Beware of the Tiger'.

Hi viz git 'Oi. what are you doing?'
Me 'Looking to see if there are any bikes here that I'd be interested in buying'
HVG 'We don't sell the bikes to the public, and you're not allowed here'
Me 'That's odd, the council website says you do, don't worry I'll give them a call and tell them that it must be a mistake'
HVG (after a lot of hemming, hawing and conversing with colleagues) grudgingly decides that they do, in fact, sell bikes and I wheel off with a fairly tidy Giant MTB for a tenner shortly afterward.

However I notice that whenever I've subsequently been there and there has been anything halfway decent (including a Hetchins the other month) it's 'already been bought and paid for' by some mysterious person or other.

Simple answer? It's a nice little cash earner for the HVGs.

^ Sounds more plausible than the H&S excuse the chap spouted at me. I suppose there must be some perks to working there and dealing with some of the nasty sh*t some people chuck out.

waste management is lucrative

waste management is lucrative

This x1000.
I know of people who work in the main depot's who find gold jewelry, cartons of brand new cigarettes (hundreds at a time) and crazy amounts of newish laptops, computers and other gear so often is has become a second income for them.

As for the bikes, I can almost certainly say they do NOT end up in land fill, more like in shipping containers to Africa.

when I worked for a ' local bike shop' we had a deal with the Police and took all the unclaimed bikes for a donation to some sort of police benevolent fund; these were then bodged up into working order and sold to the public.

Councils are trying to reduce the amount of landfill. Scrap metal has a resale value but tips are often run by companies who are subcontracted by the council and they want to make a profit so will sell bikes on.

Cambridge had a scheme where they collected them all and gave them to charities (actually, maybe prisoners, not sure now) who painted them green, made them roadworthy then left them around the city for people to freely use.

It was a lovely idea.

Except the local tea leafs had loaded them all into vans within a couple of days.

... police benevolent fund ...

Triples all round!

I found some bike parts in the metal bin of my local tip, including a pair of perfectly serviceable Campag hubs. I asked if I could take them and was told "no". I asked if I could buy them and was told "no". I asked what would happen if I just walked off with them and was told "we will report you to the police".

I walked back to the metal bin and threw the bits of brake I had also picked up back in. The hubs went into my pocket and I drove off. They have since been built into a lovely wheelset by my LBS for my mate's Harry Quinn.

The incident set me thinking though. What happens to the bike stuff and why can't I take perfectly good components and re-purpose them?

All the scrap metal from my tip goes to a local dealer. I went to see them and asked what happens to bike stuff and whether I could buy pices from them. They said "no". They couldn't allow me to search through the site as it was too dangerous and wasn't worth their while letting me do it. Seems reasonable from their point of view.

So I phoned the head of waste services at Herts CC and asked her why I couldn't take stuff from the tip or buy it. She said that CC policy is to have the public spending as little time in the recycling site as possible. They certainly don't want people rooting through the containers and taking stuff out or injuring themselves in the process. Plus, everything in the site automatically becomes the property of the waste operator, so technically taking stuff out is theft.

She also said that they were trialling shops at some sites where items that had been saved from landfill could be sold to the general public. But this wasn't going to happen at my local tip.

It's a shame since there must be loads of bike related parts being lost which could have a second life. Nowadays, I just tun up with some odd bits of metal and have a cheeky look-see.

happen-chance took me to a tip in devon once, where i bough a set of 5 demijohns, a firkin and a raleigh bike for £25. it was marvellous.

perhaps we have identified a niche, when the weee directive was first due to be launched, waste carriers were considering entering the market, collecting waste electrics from suppliers to disposal,there seems to be no single council/central govt body solely responsible for bike clearance/waste...as the uk bike market grows, who knows?

happen-chance took me to a tip in devon once, where i bough a set of 5 demijohns, a firkin and a raleigh bike for £25. it was marvellous.

I got a bass guitar for £1.

/csb

I find it sort of heartbreaking that perfectly functional bikes are scrapped. I'm surprised that nobody has put up signs saying "Don't scrap it! I'll pay you at least £5 for any whole bike."

well, people were/are advertising to buy old motors for scrap, so could work

.

http://www.re-cycle.org/

spent 5 mins at the tip couple months ago, saw a nice but slightly knackered Dahon in the bin, celestion hifi speakers, looked perfect and a massive marine fish tank. easily over £1k worth of usable stuff just in a few mins of being there.

could i take any of it home, could i fuck.