The bike I ride to work everyday is a 12 year old mountain bike that is heavy and noisy but hey, it still gets me where I want to go and I don’t need to lock it up because no one else wants it. I’ve been repairing it and tuning it over and over for the past few years and I’ve finally decided I should invest in a newer model. But, I definitely want my old bike to find a better demise than a landfill so I’ve been hunting on the internet and turned up several good options.

Professional Tuning
A professional tune up might be my first mode of action. Perhaps my bicycle tuning skills just don’t have what it takes to keep my bike running smooth. There are several bicycle repair shops within riding distance of my house. This would definitely save me some cash on a new bike.

Regive
There are several secondhand stores like Value Village or Savers that will gladly take your old bicycle and resell it. Some of these places may even be able to fix it up before putting a price tag on it.

Donations
I’ve found several bicycle donation sites that will actually fix up and ship your bike to developing countries. This seems like an ideal option, my bike could end up changing someone’s life in Africa, very cool. Re-Cycle.org is one such donation site but it only operates out of the UK.

Resell
Another option is using Kijiji or craigslist. I might be able to get a couple bucks out of someone close to home but at the very least I bet someone would come pick it up and take it away for me.

Recycle
If your bicycle is in really bad shape and you can’t even ride it you may need to move past the above four options and go straight to recycling. Most towns will have recycling organizations or at least a day once a year where they collect old bikes. Below are two bicycle recycling directories online you can use to find a local recycler:

RecycleABicycle.org – USA
bikerecycling.org.uk - UK

Alright, now I can rest easy knowing that with all these options my bicycle won’t end up in the landfill crushed between some dirty diapers.

» Recycle A Bicycle