...

recycled as metal scrap (and now that our local MEC store takes our dead tires for recycling our garbage now is mainly old seats and other plastic bits).

that's a question for you guys... what do you do with your old dry
rotted tires? We can't find anyone that will take them in baltimore. I found one place that would charge a dollar a pound to recycle them, obviously not an option for us.......

Any ideas about who to talk to and what to do with them if not? The
only reuse idea I've had is to make potts out of them which would be time consuming, and only use afew......

Beth Velocipede Bike Project Baltimore, MD

RE"CYCLING" , etc.

Hello Beth and others,

Our ethos at our shop is to recycle EVERYTHING! So besides the
usuals, glass, cans, paper and cardboard we make an effort to separate and recycle aluminum
(unusable walmart frames) and steel (most bolts, etc.) and patch all our tubes (gives mundane but fun work for
those volunteers who dont know much about fixing bikes but want to help the shop, we also have the
occasional "tubular tuesday" were we all sit down with a beer and patch tubes like crazy) and give them
away for free.

I also started to make wind chimes out of used, unusable chainrings,
short cables, stems and bent handlebars (aluminum = better sound). They aren't the best sounding windchimes, but they are damn cool and
use 100% recycled parts. Try it out and send me a picture if it works!

Tires:

An idea I had to use the extra tires we discard is to keep them,
shred them (something like a wood chipper) then make them into floor mats. I
would like to think a good glaze glue would do the trick, but I HAVE NOT tried this out
yet (we are super busy, just like every other community bike shop). Its not much help,
but its an idea! I will test this theory out and try it soon, if someone beats me to it, let
me know!

Taylor taylorpow@gmail.com www.thebikecave.org