SOME 1,200 unwanted bicycles collected since the introduction of the “bike to work” tax incentive scheme are being shipped to Africa under an initiative to create employment and sustainable transport for disadvantaged villages.
The Bikes4Africa charity has collected abandoned bicycles from across the country. It has in recent months sent two containers holding a total of 800 bikes to South Africa and has another shipment of 400 bikes ready for transport.
Charity founder Bernard Fitzpatrick said there had been a marked increase in discarded and unwanted bicycles since the introduction of the bike scheme.
“An unfortunate consequence of the Government scheme was that the secondhand bike market collapsed and bikes are being abandoned on railings, in hedgerows and gardens around the country or just sitting unused in sheds.”
The discarded bicycles can present a litter and pollution problem for local authorities, and often end up in landfill sites. Bikes4Africa provides an environmental and social solution to this problem.
Members of the Association of Landscape Contractors of Ireland have gathered the bikes which were shipped by Mr Fitzpatrick to Genadendal in the Western Cape province of South Africa.
The bikes are renovated or, where repair is not possible, stripped down and used for parts by a local mechanic. The bikes are then sold to villagers at a minimum cost of about 50 cent per bike to cover the cost of repairs.
From the 800 bikes which have arrived so far – many in a very poor state of repair – it has been possible to reconstruct 600 bikes for the use of the community, Mr Fitzpatrick said.
“It is now proving a challenge to keep the repairs up with demand for bicycles. We would ask people who have old bikes at the bottom of the garden or in the shed to allow them to be put to good use.”
The project recently won a Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Chamber of Commerce Envirocom Award for engaging communities in an environmental project to avert a national waste problem.
