As one of the largest bicycle refurbishers and recyclers in the country, Brainwave Bikes is turning the tide on bike waste, one flip at a time.
Leaving the bike to rust in the backyard doesn’t have to be a reality anymore, thanks to Victoria’s largest recycler and retailer of recycled bikes – Brainwave Bikes.
More than one million used bikes are taking up space in greater Melbourne, half of which end up in landfill, creating more than six million kilograms of waste. Brainwave Bikes was started to take advantage of this “free resource” and to create circular outcomes for unwanted bikes.
Located in Dingley Village, Victoria, the social enterprise, under the umbrella of Brainwave Australia, receives about 50-80 bikes per week to be either recycled and sold through its shop and online, or to be dismantled for spare parts. Brainwave Bikes is the work of Paul Bird, Chief Executive Officer of Brainwave Australia, who previously managed more than 900 donation bins across 17 Brotherhood of St Laurence stores, where bikes were not accepted.
In the almost three years it has been operational; Brainwave Bikes has refurbished nearly 7000 bikes – 42 per cent have been resold, the rest have been dismantled for parts and recycled.
Paul says as communities are encouraged to embrace a circular economy, they should be actively looking at reusing bikes.
“Only now are people seeing their bike as something that deserves a second life and not something to keep stuck in the shed or around the backyard rusting away,” he says.
Brainwave Bikes combines Paul’s admiration for Brainwave Australia, which supports families and children with brain injuries and illnesses, and a desire to tap into the resource of unused bikes.
Unemployed young people supported by Brainwave Australia are given real work experience, training and employability skills to help them transition to mainstream employment.
“I’ve always felt the best intervention we can give young people with various disadvantages is enabling them to get into mainstream employment,” Paul says.
“Over the course of six to nine months, we engage them in a real work environment with training. From day one, they’re treated as workers, not as a program participant, with role modelling from the professional staff team.
“This type of social enterprise is proven as the only way to break the cycle for unemployed disadvantaged young people.”
The start line
Brainwave Bikes began with an initial partnership with Mercedes-Benz, 99 Bikes, waste management company Cleanaway and WISE Employment.
Cleanaway separates bikes from its usual rubbish collection and delivers them to Brainwave Bikes’ Dandenong storage facility.
Bikes are now increasingly sourced through donations from Mercedes-Benz dealers and 99 bikes stores. Regular pop-ups are also hosted at Melbourne University, Monash University, Queen Victoria Market and the RMIT City Campus.
Brainwave Bikes received a grant from Sustainability Victoria to work with all Greater Melbourne local governments and conducted a survey to find out what each council does with bicycle waste.
“We discovered most Local Government Areas didn’t have bikes listed in their A-Z recycling guide, so we worked with them to include bikes and educate their residents, while attending community events,” says Paul.
“We get involved with all councils to varying degrees, depending on how they would like to promote recycling. Some councils are more active than others.”
Brainwave Bikes has attracted a range of volunteers who are interested and competent in fixing bikes – from the local men’s shed, to men recovering from mental health issues to students.
“We also have corporate volunteers who join us. They are always looking for volunteering opportunities for their teams,” says Paul.
“Our volunteers can undergo basic tasks including dismantling the bikes, cleaning them, moving them around the shop, and pricing them.”
Leading the team is Brainwave Bikes Manager, Kieran McMahon and workshop leader, Vince Attree, Founder of St Kilda Cycles.
Paul says the success of Brainwave Bikes is an example of how initiatives can support both individuals and the wider community while building a circular economy.
Since its origins, the program has diverted 51 tonnes of used bicycles from landfill and saved 600 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
With each purchase made, the team does its best to educate about the importance of a circular economy, especially for hard-to-recycle items.
“Cheaper bikes made overseas and sold at large retail stores are less well made and are a lot harder to recycle because they don’t design them with the intent to change parts easily,” says Paul.
“Similar to the fast fashion world, the quality is so poor that they don’t last that long. That is the biggest challenge.”
With a big push on circularity, Paul believes bike recycling will grow tremendously in the next five years.
He expects big brands to follow in the footsteps of Decathlon, a French sporting goods retailer that was the first to offer a program for customers to exchange their old Decathlon bike for credit towards a new bike.
“Progress in Australia is slow, but I think in five to 10 years it will be commonplace for the cycling industry.”
Riding success
He says 90 per cent of people who enter Brainwave Bikes leave with a bike and are amazed by the quality of the stock.
“People often come in and don’t realise they are used bikes. The store is really a tool to change the attitudes of people toward buying second hand bikes.”
Paul says customer patterns can be assessed by the 80/20 rule – 20 per cent of people care about a circular economy and want to buy from charities to support a cause, however, if the product or service isn’t any good, they will buy it once, and then not come back again. That’s called the ‘pity purchase’.
It’s the 80 per cent, people who aren’t particularly bothered about buying second hand but want to receive good service and a good product at a good price, that Paul and the team are trying to build.
“We typically have four types of customers. We have students, families, older people returning to cycling and eco conscious people,” says Paul.
“We have a really good product; we just need to find the best way to provide the service to the market.”
That could include opening a second store in Melbourne’s inner city, opening more pop-up locations, or partnering with more neighbourhood houses and repair cafes.
For more information, visit:
https://brainwavebikes.org.au/
