Learn practical skills to save items from landfill Coffs Coast Coffs Coast - popup ad Coffs Coast News by News Of The Area - Modern Media - April 26, 2024 Learning to repair a bike might save it from landfill. EMPLOYING his specialist’s eye to a pile of 193 discarded bicycles, Cameron Bate from Recycle Bicycle decreed more than half of them to be repairable, and a further 23 percent of them could be salvaged for parts, leaving only 21 percent on a one-way trip to landfill. Cameron’s assessments were part of MidWaste’s deep dive into “what’s possible” in the world of waste management, The almost-200 bikes were collected over a four-week period from three participating transfer stations for the purpose of the audit. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02) 4981 8882. Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au Now Cameron is coming to Bellingen to host a free Bike Repair Workshop at the Bowerhouse Community Centre at Raleigh on Saturday 20 April, the first of four repair workshops. It’s all about education, according to MidWaste Coordinator Wendy Grant. “Teaching the methods for repair, repurposing and recycling helps keep things out of landfill and helps keep costs down through reusing items; good for people’s back pockets and the environment.” For example, useful parts of one old bicycle could be used to repair another bike, such as pedals, seats, tubes and tyres, with the remaining parts broken down into metal types, rubber and plastics for recycling. “In our fast-paced, convenient world, sometimes the quickest, easiest and cheapest option is to bin something if it has suddenly broken and buy a new one,” said Wendy. “The problem with this is that it can result in too many easily repaired items being thrown away, adding to huge amounts of waste being sent to landfill and increasing carbon emissions.” MidWaste advocates for making small changes at a local level with the bigger picture of making a difference to the environment. Bellingen Shire Council has hopped on board in partnership with MidWaste to host the four practical ‘fix it’ workshops to empower residents to be part of the repair and reuse movement. “As we move towards a circular economy – it’s all about reusing, repairing and recycling rather than throwing valuable resources away,” said Wendy. Taking place at the Bowerhouse Community Recycling Centre in Raleigh, the four workshops in April and May will teach residents how to do basic repairs and maintenance, fix old furniture and upcycle old books into beautiful journals or art. By Andrea FERRARI Old furniture can be beautifully repaired with some basic skills.
