Hire waste is putting the cycle in recycling

Old inner tubes from the tyres of Peak District National Park hire bikes are being saved from landfill and recycled into new products.

Each year, around 600 inner tubes are used by the fleet of bicycles hired by visitors enjoying Britain’s original National Park, plus any tubes that are replaced when the cycle hire centre staff repair and service customer’s own bikes.

There are four Peak District National Park cycle hire centres: Ashbourne (Mapleton Lane); Derwent, next to the reservoirs; Manifold, in Hulme End; and Parsley Hay, near Hartington. These are now drop-off points for the public to recycle their bicycle inner tubes too.  

Helen Bower, visitor operations manager, said: “We’ve teamed up with the Staffordshire-based charity Cycle of Good who have a scheme in Malawi to train and support tailors and their families by generating income through recycling inner tubes into new products that are sold on.

“It’s really good to know that from now on, our old inner tubes won’t be wasted and sent to landfill, instead they will be used to bring social and economic benefits to a community where there is no welfare state – if you don’t earn, you don’t eat.

“We hope that cyclists who live in the Peak District National Park or who use our trails will bring in their waste inner tubes to the cycle hire centres too – the more the merrier.”

For location details of all four Peak District National Park cycle hire centres, visit www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/cyclehire.

You can find out more about Cycle of Good on their website www.cycleofgood.com

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