i know community cycles is not the only shop on this list that has space
issues, nor shortness of volunteer hours....
i'm wondering if any shops out there have some kind of "we're all filled up,
we can't take any more bikes" policy.
we've got connections with our local police department, so when they sweep
through the public bike racks and clean up abandoned bikes, we get them.
this brings us several loads of 100-300 bikes per year. we've also got a
similar hookup with the university of colorado at boulder, which is 30,000
students strong. this yeilds about the same number of bikes, but in fewer
loads.
these are in addition to all our other donated bikes from individuals,
smaller groups, etc.
we're already using cheaper, department store bikes, or those who are beyond
repair specifically as stripper bikes, for parts, or for lessons.
we don't have a problem getting bikes to use/turnaround, as i'm guessing
most of you also don't have this problem.
my question is, when do we say "sorry, we're all filled up, we can't take
your bike right now"?
do any of you have some creative ways that you've solved the "we've got too
many bikes and not enough space to keep them while they're waiting for a
home"?
we have done some work with a couple of different groups that have sent
bikes abroad, but we don't want to make this a regular part of our program,
for various reasons. to date, we don't have a set policy, but we tend to
only participate in those kinds of programs when we're busting at the seams,
and getting rid of 300-500 bikes would help tremendously.
we've gotten in touch with our local recycling yard, who pretty much takes
everything that can be recycled. i personally know that they see several
bikes per week in their dumpsters, but they don't have any way to pull those
out once they're in, once people dump washing machines, fridges, etc, on top
of them. i'd like to see a seperate "bike dumpster" for people to drop them
off, and we go and reuse them.
the problem is we're gonna need some better way to sort them and keep them
until someone can get to them...
thanks for reading this far.
josh.