Greater Anglia donates bicycles to communities in Africa

Published on: Thursday, 21 July 2022
Last updated: Thursday, 21 July 2022

Train operator Greater Anglia has recently donated another 40 bicycles to Re-Cycle, a charity which takes used bicycles and ships them to rural communities in Africa.

The cycles were all abandoned and had been left at stations across the Greater Anglia network, including Cambridge, Chelmsford and Norwich.

The train operator regularly carries out cycle tagging exercises, where notices are attached to cycles parked in the station’s racks. Cyclists are asked to remove the tag from the bike to indicate it is being used.

Any cycles with tags left on them after a period of time are removed from the cycle storage and donated to charity. This frees up space for other cyclists to use.

Greater Anglia has been working with Re-Cycle for several years and has donated more than 1000 bikes to communities in Ghana, Zambia, The Gambia and South Africa.

Krzysztof Drozd, Greater Anglia Station Cleaning & Waste Manager, said: "We are very pleased to support Re-Cycle by donating these abandoned bikes from various station across our network.

"People living in rural Africa can walk for miles a day to collect water, or to get to school or work. A bike can change someone’s life, and we are pleased to be able to help Re-Cycle with their mission to help people in Africa access sustainable bike transport.

"We would like to remind passengers that our cycle storage facilities are for short term use only and people should not leave cycles for longer periods of time. We would also advise cyclists to use good quality locks while securing their bikes."

Claire Kettle, Re-Cycle’s Director says “We are delighted to have built a strong partnership with Greater Anglia over several years and are very grateful for all of the abandoned bicycles donated to Re-Cycle. These bikes help give independence to so many people in Africa with no other transport options and our reuse and repurpose ethic means that fewer bikes are sent to landfill in the UK.”

Re-Cycle, which is based in Colchester, sends bicycles to rural communities in Africa, enriching the lives of those less fortunate, by giving them the gift of independence. The charity also provides training to mechanics on how to service and repair the bikes, enabling a bike to become more sustainable. Find out more information about Re-Cycle.