Turning Your Trash into Treasure
New (Re)Cycled Bicycle Process at BBP
Everything we do here in the shop depends on the support and donations from our community. We are so thankful for everything that you do, and we appreciate you thinking of us when you decided to find a new home for your bicycle. If you have donated with us recently, you may have noticed things have changed a little bit with the process. We wanted to bring you up to speed to ensure your donation experience goes smoothly.
If you’ve been to the shop during the summer time, you know how busy it can be at the front of the shop with people waiting to get back to the shop floor, purchase parts, or ask questions. Donations taken to the front of our shop create quite the bottleneck in our space. In order to improve your BBP experience, we have started taking donations through the back of the shop only. So, the next time you come to donate, please pull your vehicle around to the back alleyway and ring the bell. A BBP staff/volunteer will come out to greet you.
As a recycling center, we do our absolute best to take in and re-use as much as we possibly can, however, there are times when we just do not have the capacity to take everything. In fact, there are times when taking the wrong kinds of donations actually hinders our ability to fulfill our mission. Please review our donation policy HERE to support us by ensuring you’re bringing donations that fuel our mission.
I have a bicycle to donate...what do I do next?
Bring it on down during our official donation hours, which are Wednesday through Saturday from 11am-5pm. We want to make sure that your bike goes to good use, and in order to ensure its safety, please donate only during donation hours. But first! We need your assistance before you drop off your bikes to help us maximize our space and ensure we can process the bicycles more quickly and efficiently. With a few simple steps, you can help us get these bicycles into our programs and into the hands of those who need it. In just 5 short minutes, you can make a HUGE difference.
Please wipe down your bicycle before dropping it off. You wouldn’t drop off your dirty drawers to the thrift store, would you? Ok, bad example, but you get the picture. Grab a wet rag and boom, new bike! This saves our mechanics oodles of time, allowing them to fix more bikes for the community.
Please turn your handlebars sideways. If you have handlebars similar to the left, loosen only the two side bolts (not top bolt), turn handlebars, and re-tighten. If you have handlebars similar to the picture on the right, loosen top bolt, turn handlebars, and re-tighten. This helps us maximize our storage capacity.
3. Please remove pedals. Go HERE for video instructions.
We understand not everyone has the time or the tools to do these things. If you do, and you are able to help us out with the bars and pedals, it would be greatly appreciated. If not, we still love you and value your donation. At the very least, please wipe the bike down. This little thing really does make a big difference. If you see things growing out of your bike or a spider has made a nice little home somewhere on it, that is a sure fire sign a wipe down is necessary. Shoot, even a quick spray with a hose helps!
It is within our mission to build a stronger community through affordable refurbished bicycles. With these little steps, we are able to realize our true potential as a bicycle co-op and get more quality bicycles into our youth programs and the greater community at large!
As you can see, bikes pile up fast!
Now that I’ve donated my bicycle, what happens to it?
The life of a donated bicycle can go in a few different directions.
Bicycles that have a lot of life left in them will be refurbished and resold at affordable prices, making bicycles accessible to all
We will pull usable parts off of bicycles and re-sell those in our parts room. This invaluable process helps ensure someone can find a quick, inexpensive, and efficient replacement part for their bicycle in order to keep them rolling.
Older or more heavily used bicycles will be recycled. We leverage our community partner Pacific Steel and Recycling to ensure that bikes BBP can’t reuse are recycled rather than thrown into a landfill. Funds generated from recycling go directly back into BBP Programs.
Thank you for donating and for helping us get refurbished bicycles out to the community!