The Bikery: Recycling and repair hub to give unwanted bikes a new home

A new community enterprise is giving old bikes a new lease of life for worthy causes.

The new bike recycling, repair and reuse project in Huntly will see hundreds of unwanted bikes across the north east saved from scrap and given a new home in support of local people.

All the bikes at the Bikery have been donated, then refurbished before being resold back into the community at an affordable price as part of a new sustainability project .

Over the past year, Regional Transport Partnership Nastran’s, has been working alongside local charities including Gordon Rural Action to deliver the project.

Local people will also be offered volunteering and employment opportunities at the hub.

Laura McNeil, Bikery Project Co-ordinator at Gordon Rural Action said: “We are delighted to have been able to launch our new shop in Huntly, save hundreds of bikes from entering landfill and help people from all walks of life enjoy cycling with no barriers.

“We hope that the local communities around Aberdeenshire will get behind us and donate as many bikes as possible.”

Unwanted bikes can be dropped off at locations across Aberdeenshire and will then be assessed and refurbished at repair workshops.

Bikes will then be resold at discounted prices or, via a referral scheme, given to children to who otherwise might not be able to own their own bike. 

The Bikery hopes by giving these bikes a second life, it’s benefiting not only the local community but the wider environment.

The project hopes to encourage people to donate their unwanted bikes because it believes there could be as many as 12,000 bikes being dumped every year in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire alone; that’s the equivalent of 151 tonnes of waste.

Emma Selway Grant of Gordon Rural Action said: “When a child stops using it, often it goes into the garden.

“Then it’s forgotten about and you don’t know what to do with it. So people think we will just take that to the skip.

“Yes we think there is probably that amount is going into landfill which is not great.”