Each year Bike Recycle Vermont refurbishes hundreds of bicycles and sells them to eligible community members. By providing people with transportation, we're opening doors, enriching lives and expanding opportunities. A bike is a healthy, non-polluting means of transportation that provides access to work, chores, recreation, and more.

When we provide someone with a bike, we start a lasting relationship. The relationship grows as bicycle recipients bring their bikes in for maintenance or repair. Bike recipients help us spread the word, by bringing in friends in need of a or wanting to donate a bike.

At Bike Recycle Vermont, we start with a bike that needs repair and turn it into an opportunity to connect with local youth. We work with local schools and social service agencies to create hands-on learning experiences from skilled bike mechanics.

Through our Youth Training Program, Bike Recycle Vermont bike mechanics teach youth ages 8 to 18 important technical and communication skills that will help them in their everyday lives. We teach the fundamentals of bicycle mechanics, ranging from the basic mechanical skills needed to feel confident biking, to more advanced skills required to work in a bike shop. Our Youth Training Program is a chance for kids to get their hands dirty; building and repairing bikes.

Click here to find out more about Earn-A-Bike and Bike Clinics.

BRV helps reduce waste by reusing bikes languishing in storage or refurbishing bikes that otherwise may be destined for a landfill. Whatever we can't use, we recycle through Chittenden Solid Waste. Since we started in 2004, we have accepted thousands of donated bikes, a large percentage of which were on their way to a dump.

But as the saying goes, "One man's trash is another man's treasure." At BRV, bikes that some would consider trash are transformed into viable transportation. If a donated bike is no longer road-worthy, we strip the bike of all salvageable parts and save these for use in restoring or repairing other bikes.

Bike parts that aren't salvageable may take on a new live elsewhere. Our staff, volunteers, and local students have made rubber-tube bungee cords, bike-frame stools, and wind chimes that include discarded bike parts. Additionally, some unsalvageable parts are sent to a re-manufacturer who makes bicycle courier bags and car seat belts using inner tubes.