Perhaps what I am going to say goes wider than what was asked initially, but it might be of use. For 5 years I helped run the french network of bike kitchens (l'Heureux Cyclage, LHC) and was involved in running those spaces in the transborder Greater Geneva area: my french kitchen was En Ville À Vélo and my swiss one La Bicyclette Bleue.

One of the greatest contributions of LHC to French public life was to first analyze and push for a legal framework for the recycling of second-hand bikes in the country, starting in 2014. The push over the years was so successful that today the industrial sector (Europe still has bike manufacturers) became interested in the recycling of bikes, though their model is more about recycling tonnes of metal instead of recycling and repairing individual bikes. As of now the talk is of a budget appropriation of 100 M euros for the industrial sector and 1-2 million for the bike kitchens ( of which there are about 600 in the country, you can find them in this map). Still, that money would represent a couple of extra thousands of euros for the (very) artisanal kitchens that have sprung all over the country. 

I have talked with some people running kitchens in the US, notably in Mass, where I am now based, and it appears that for some organization trying the bike kitchen model the amount of bikes available become an insurmountable issue of moving piles of bikes ( they would say trash) from one pile to the next, to the point that they decide to abandon the practice. I also know that some of the most successful examples are akin to the bike not bombs model, in fact I have been helping Working Bikes Chicago send containers of 10-speed Schwinns to Latinamerica to make space in their basement. 

Anyways, I hope this information is of use to ( some) of you.

Alejandro

On Wed, 26 Jun 2024 at 17:06, Audrey Wiedemeier via TheThinkTank <thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org> wrote:
We get close to 2000 donations bikes a year. It never slows down. 

Peace & grease, 

Audrey Wiedemeier (She/her/hers)
Iowa City Bike Library, Director 

1222 S. Gilbert Court, Iowa City, IA
Hours: Wednesdays & Friday 12 - 5 and SATURDAYS 10 - 3
Want to donate? Drop off anytime during these hours. Thank you!

C: (515) 450-1651



On Wed, Jun 26, 2024 at 3:44 PM Sam Haraldson via TheThinkTank <thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org> wrote:
We've been in operation since 2007 and have tracked a fair amount of data for much of that time period.  Numbers of all sorts got skewed during the years coinciding with the COVID pandemic but otherwise trends have generally maintained or risen in terms of donations of cash and bikes as well as our volunteer hours, and bikes given away/sold.  One thing our Board and Staff sets as a yearly goal is keeping the ratio of bikes sold to bikes given away free as close to 1:1 as possible.  This has required a balancing act of pricing some bikes higher when we need to slow sales down, or doing special events to give away bikes when we need those numbers to come up.  Along that line we've had an annual "kids bike giveaway" that we promote around Christmas time where we give any child who wants one a free bike (under 26") and it's brought in a ton of great press for us and has put smiles on hundreds of kids' faces.

Cheers,
Sam

 

SAM HARALDSON  

 

Bozeman Bike Kitchen

President, Board of Directors

2104 Industrial Drive

A community cycling center

bozemanbikekitchen.org 
_______________________________________________
TheThinkTank mailing list -- thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org
To unsubscribe send an email to thethinktank-leave@lists.bikecollectives.org
To view this discussion on the web visit https://lists.bikecollectives.org/hyperkitty/list/thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org/message/KOCNCL6VU4TMSMKQP3PCK3P6YULAYDLM/
_______________________________________________
TheThinkTank mailing list -- thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org
To unsubscribe send an email to thethinktank-leave@lists.bikecollectives.org
To view this discussion on the web visit https://lists.bikecollectives.org/hyperkitty/list/thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org/message/X7COPU55Z6A7QJHWJTOKSFERYA43ROLM/