Virginia Kinninmont said:hey all.
The pile of useless worn out components after the last overhaul of my bike
got me to thinking about the waste associated with cycling. Will the new law
affecting motorists and the deposal of old cars affect cyclists?
No new law here. When old cars here in Denmark are being put to sleep
they must be handed in to goverment approved recycling centers which
then removes the fluids and splits them up in parts based on material
and stuff like glass and batteries are handled specialy. The owner of
the car pays a premium to cover the cost of that and I think it's like $150.
Quoted message said:Would
cyclists (you/us) be prepared to pay a premium for cycle components knowing
that perhaps we could reclaim some of the cost by handing in old components
or by reverting to a cycle license scheme like the very old days?
I won't mind, however it would be pretty impossible to create such a
system. As it is now bikes move freely across borders and are not
registrered like cars. Plus the waste problem about bikes is really
minute compared to most of the other stuff in our souroundings - for
starters lot less material is involved than in cars. In fact the
computer you are reading this on is a much worse enviromental problem!
Quoted message said:Trying to investigate this gap in the bike market so any views/help with
this 'market research' would be much appreciated.
Unless you are focusing only the US I think you will find some big
differences in what can be done. For example the use of bikes are very
widespread so a recycling system for bikes would be easier to make
financialy sound. Not that we really need it because we allready have a
recycling system taking care of most things, it's free for private
persons and works pretty well.
A little statistics about Denmark (Aprox 5.1 million souls)
Number of cars (not counting busses, lorries...): 1.843.000
New cars sold in 1999: 144.000
Number of bikes: 4.2 million
New bikes sold in 1999: 390.000
Number of bikes meant for children (6 to 12 years): 616.000
On average every adult dane travels 1.2 km by bike every day and 28.4 km
by car every day.
Aprox. 500 people are killed in traffic accidents in Denmark every year
and of thoose about 70 are cyclists. The number one reason for bike
accidents with personal injuries is a car coming from the right and
hitting the cyclist, reason number two is solo accidents - note that
last statistic says nothing about bad the injuries are solo accidents
with fatal outcome are very rare.
Kind regards
Bruno
--
To mail me write to iddqdATworldonline.dk (U know what 2 do)
More of these http://www.westocykler.dk would mean less cars and less
polution.
