Re: [TheThinkTank] Thethinktank Digest, Vol 109, Issue 6

12 Oct 2015

      B!KE never pays for rags. If you make it known to your members/users that
you accept donations of old clothing/bedding/towels/tooth brushes,
thoughtful grateful folks bring them by frequently! Some even pre-rip the
rags down to a usable size. Ripping rags is an easy task for even the
most-unskilled volunteer (its also pretty satisfying).
We throw them all away in weekly garbage pickups, so they end up in a
landfill. This seems much more practical than washing them. We create about
1 75L garbage bag full of garbage per week, this includes rags, tubes,
broken saddles, broken plastic mounts, etc.
I have looked into rag services and they all seem exorbitant and
unnecessary. Especially because I do believe that the landfill is a more
ecological place for the rags and grease to end up than in our water.
Best,
Tegan
On Sat, Oct 10, 2015 at 4:16 PM, <
thethinktank-request@lists.bikecollectives.org> wrote:
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Today's Topics:

Re: Slack channel
(Falls City Community BikeWorks Community BikeWorks)
Re: What do you do with your dirty rags? (Michael Kirk)
Re: What do you do with your dirty rags? (Jonathan Morrison)
Re: What do you do with your dirty rags? (Angel York)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Falls City Community BikeWorks Community BikeWorks <
fccbikeworks@gmail.com>
To: The Think Tank thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org
Cc:
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 2015 16:47:54 -0400
Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Slack channel
thank you. please add us!
On Oct 9, 2015 10:55 AM, "Andrew Shooner" ashooner@gmail.com wrote:
...
I was getting email from several different shops to discuss software. I
want to be able to bring other folks into that conversation when they want
to, so I created a general slack team for bike collectives:
bikecollectives.slack.com
If you want to discuss specific stuff without spamming the email list,
let me know and I'll add you. This isn't intended to replace the good
discussion on the email list; it's more just for immediate collaboration,
etc.
-Andy
Broke Spoke

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michael Kirk michael.john.kirk@gmail.com
To: The Think Tank thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org
Cc:
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 2015 14:14:44 -0700
Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] What do you do with your dirty rags?
Bicicocina in Los Angeles has been using Ameripride for our rag service
for years. It’s pretty convenient, but at about $35/wk (about $2000/year)
I’d say it’s more cash than it’s worth. The problem is the minimum orders.
We could easily do with once a month service, but they require us to have
once a week service. And frustratingly we were previously told they had a
$50/wk minimum and thus got some rugs, hand towels, and hand soap
delivered. Though more than half the time they “forget” the hand soap.
Somehow in our threatening to fire them, the lowered our minimum to
something like $35/wk and we no longer get the rugs.
We approached one of our neighboring auto-shops to see if we could
piggy-back on their rag order but they thought it was a dumb idea and that
we should just buy our own.
In response to this thread, I just looked into Cintas and they also have a
$35/wk minimum, and require at least weekly service. I’m not sure how many
rags that would be.
My current preference would be to keep a small number of rags, use them
till their super dirty, then toss them. One idea for a rag source was to go
to a goodwill outlet and buy old t-shirt and towels by the pound. Of course
letting your clients know that you are a place that will accept their old
cloth donations could get you part of the way there. This would probably be
the most economical solution, but it does require some institutional energy
to stay on top of rag inventory, and make sure people are being mindful
about using new clean rags and throwing out old ones.
M
On Oct 9, 2015, at 12:16 PM, Tom Martin thomas.martin6@pcc.edu wrote:
Our volume of repairs and fleet bikes does not make it necessary for a rag
service (which is very important- see previous threads on fires).
We use blue shop towels and put them in our non recyclable landfill bound
waste.
I am not aware of a method to reclaim or separate the grime, metal and
oils from disposable shop towels ( the cotton reinforced paper ones).
Towel or rag services do this I am assuming. What do they do with the
waste water? Do they treat the water? Glean the metal shavings that may be
suspended in the grime? Separate the oil from the dirt? Interesting things
to ponder but I wonder if it is something that is scalable down to a small
shop or household level.
Tom Martin
ASPCC bike program coordinator
Cascade
Sent on the go. Please excuse brevity and typos.
On Oct 9, 2015, at 12:10 PM, dontito@videotron.ca wrote:
We’re looking into the disposal problem for oily and greasy rags generated
in bike shops.

I’d like to get an idea of the amount of this waste generated in

different shops as a function of shop activity.
2.    Where do your dirty rags go?
3.    Some shops use commercial services that supply clean rags and
collect and clean them after they’ve been used.   If you’re familiar with
this kind of service do you know the cost? Do you know what sort of
cleaning treatment they use and what happens to that effluent?
4.    Anybody found creative ways to detoxify this shop waste?
Thanks!
Donnie
SantroVélo, Montréal

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jonathan Morrison jonathan@bicyclecollective.org
To: The Think Tank thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org
Cc:
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 2015 16:25:33 -0600
Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] What do you do with your dirty rags?
It really depends on your area's environmental issues.  You have to pick
your poison.
If water pollution is the biggest concern, do not clean them or use a
service that cleans them.  If air pollution is the biggest concern, do not
burn them or use a service that burns them.  If soil pollution is the
biggest concern, do not throw them away.
For salt lake city, Utah (a desert climate with inversion issues) I would
rank our importance in this order:

Air
Water
Soil/Earth

So we throw them away and they sit at the local dump. If we wanted to go
the extra mile we would bring them to the hazardous waste facility at the
dump for special processing.  But without really knowing what that entails
it could be worse.  The time required to drive to the dump takes away time
from the activities defined by our mission statement.  You also don't want
the fire hazard of a pile of oily rags sitting around.
On Oct 9, 2015 1:10 PM, dontito@videotron.ca wrote:
...
We’re looking into the disposal problem for oily and greasy rags
generated in bike shops.

I’d like to get an idea of the amount of this waste generated in

different shops as a function of shop activity.

Where do your dirty rags go?

Some shops use commercial services that supply clean rags and

collect and clean them after they’ve been used.   If you’re familiar
with this kind of service do you know the cost? Do you know what sort of
cleaning treatment they use and what happens to that effluent?

Anybody found creative ways to detoxify this shop waste?

Thanks!
Donnie
SantroVélo, Montréal

The ThinkTank mailing List
<a href="
http://lists.bikecollectives.org/options.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.org">Unsubscribe
from this list</a>
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Angel York aniola@gmail.com
To: The Think Tank thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org
Cc:
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 2015 17:04:23 -0700
Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] What do you do with your dirty rags?
I like that framework for thinking about how to deal with rags, Jonathan!
If I understand what you're saying correctly, your collective may be
breaking a law:
Exempt generators cannot dispose of their hazardous waste in storm drains,
landfills and dumpsters. Federal, state and local laws prohibit these
actions since it may cause environmental and public health problems. The
landfills in Salt Lake County are prohibited from accepting hazardous or
liquid waste. Violators of these laws can face both civil and criminal
penalties.
Fortunately, it looks like there's a program for you!
http://slcohealth.org/programs/waterQualHazWaste/solidHazWaste/householdHazW...
On Fri, Oct 9, 2015 at 3:25 PM, Jonathan Morrison <
jonathan@bicyclecollective.org> wrote:
...
It really depends on your area's environmental issues.  You have to pick
your poison.
If water pollution is the biggest concern, do not clean them or use a
service that cleans them.  If air pollution is the biggest concern, do not
burn them or use a service that burns them.  If soil pollution is the
biggest concern, do not throw them away.
For salt lake city, Utah (a desert climate with inversion issues) I would
rank our importance in this order:

Air
Water
Soil/Earth

So we throw them away and they sit at the local dump. If we wanted to go
the extra mile we would bring them to the hazardous waste facility at the
dump for special processing.  But without really knowing what that entails
it could be worse.  The time required to drive to the dump takes away time
from the activities defined by our mission statement.  You also don't want
the fire hazard of a pile of oily rags sitting around.
On Oct 9, 2015 1:10 PM, dontito@videotron.ca wrote:
...
We’re looking into the disposal problem for oily and greasy rags
generated in bike shops.

I’d like to get an idea of the amount of this waste generated in