Bikes Not Bombs
Take a trip to Bikes not Bombs in Jamaica Plain,
Massachusetts on a Wednesday night, volunteer night, and you will start to
understand the potential of pedal power. The experience begins as you approach
the entry ramp to their hub and you are greeted by a stack of recycled bicycles
leaning against the building. The bikes consistently pile up as local community
members and friends to the organization drop them off. You admire this
plentitude of reusable excess being collected until a volunteer ventures out of
the building and enters the pile to grab a bike and carry it into the building.
Following the bicycle on its way, you enter the BNB World Headquarters and are
embraced by the aura of pedal power. The atmosphere has an off-beat underground
vibe, with a scent of revolution in the air.
Volunteers are chatting and working away at their abandoned
and donated bicycles, preparing them for their new life. If they have a
commuter bicycle, suited for a young adults going to and from school, the bike
will be fixed up for the earn-a-bike program. This program empowers youth in
the Boston area by teaching them the basics of bike mechanics and upon
graduation letting them keep the bicycle they learned to maintain. If it’s a
strong sturdy mountain bicycle it will be “flattened” and set aside to join 450
other recycled bicycles in shipments to Africa or Central America. If it’s a
bike that cannot be repaired to working condition, it will be stripped for its
spare parts and recyclable materials. A portion of the bicycles are also recycled
to the BNB bicycle shop which helps create sustainability for BNB’s community
programs.
When good number of bicycles for shipping overseas has been flattened,
you’ll help carry them over to the BNB warehouse a short walk away. As you
enter the BNB warehouse, the stack of 50 or so bicycles you admired at the headquarters
looks small and meager. The potential to change the developing world with pedal
power is on full display, a thousand or so bicycles, and mass of spare parts
overwhelm you. Heading home after an evening at BNB volunteer night, your hands
will be greased and your perspective on pedal power will be forever changed.
Check out the BNB website and learn more about what’s going
on.