Any scrap metal that the organization collects, it recycles for cash that goes toward the purchase of tools. “We recycle everything: steel, aluminum, boxes parts that people donated, water bottles,” Willard says. Excess parts get shipped to other bike organizations throughout Pennsylvania and the world.
#Recycle cycle free
Willard is able to supply free bikes to the Harrisburg community because the parts that go toward repairs have been recycled from other bikes. “Recycle” is key in the organization’s name. Other people come in to donate their time, helping with repairs, in sort of a work-share program, during which they can earn a bike after putting in the allotted number of hours. “Kids will be savvier when dealing with mechanics later in life,” Williard explains.
#Recycle cycle how to
Instead, Recycle Bicycle provides the tools and expertise to help people learn how to fix their bikes for themselves, at what he calls his “teaching warehouse.” One of the greatest advantages that the organization provides is a sense of empowerment.
Willard doesn’t believe in taking someone’s bike and merely fixing it. “We are a do-it-yourself shop that costs you nothing, but you have to invest in helping.” “We’re here to help people build their own bikes,” says Willard. These parts go toward the repair or the building of bikes, and the scrap metal is recycled. Most of the bike parts are donated or removed from bikes that are no longer suited for riding. Within 15,000 square feet, Bike Warehouse is jam-packed with tires, wheels, brakes, chains, pedals, you name it. That small repair bag became a toolbox, which became a chest, then later a van, then a trailer and finally, the Bike Warehouse, where Recycle Bicycle has operated for five years. Recycle Bicycle volunteers would also crash block parties with large crowds, where they would set up a makeshift street repair shop. So, he began setting up shop at intersections throughout the city with a little bike repair bag and waited for people with bikes that needed a little love. “But kids going through the intersection without breaks, that scared me.” He remembers thinking that people who didn’t have access to enough food wouldn’t necessarily face the imminent threat of death. As part of a food drive to feed people in Harrisburg, he acted as security for the group’s food van and became disturbed by all of the kids who would pass by on the street, pushing bicycles without brakes on the tires. Willard is passionate, animated, relentless and strong-willed about a free public service that strives to keep the city’s bikers safe-so much so that he left a corporate job on an early buyout to repair bikes.įourteen years ago, Willard encountered the personal resolve that would fuel the all-volunteer Recycle Bicycle community. About the self-sufficiency, empowerment and public service that the organization provides.Īfter a thorough tour of the warehouse, I had quite a lot of my questions answered without having to ask.
About the personal transformations that people experience through the organization. He told me about the countless bikes that go through triage at the warehouse and the importance of teaching people how to fix their own bicycles. When I recently visited his Bike Warehouse on a rainy Saturday, I was ready to go with my camera and a list of questions that I hoped to have answered about his non-profit organization, Recycle Bicycle.Īfter getting introductions out of the way, he jumped right in about the building we were standing in, a dim, damp, yet expansive warehouse that was donated to his organization to use as a repair shop.