Sustainability
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Sustainability
Pretty much all of the products we use in this industry can have a negative impact on the environment if they are not treated correctly. On the other hand, if a small effort is made, there is much to be gained by collecting our by-products and sending them to the right place, for little to no cost. Here at Flywheels we do as much as possible not only to not have an adverse environmental effect, but improve the use of resources as much as possible.
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Waste Oil
All petroleum products are a finite resource. 100% of the oil we drain from customers’ bikes gets collected when our 1000 litre sump is full. It gets taken to a refinery where it is separated and reconstituted as diesel for our miners, and further chemistry can transform the waste into new, useable products. Nothing goes down the drain! Not even coolant or brake fluid. If you like to do your own oil changes, great! Feel free to bottle up the used oil and bring it in. We’ll do the right thing and it’s free of charge. The sump is available 24/7 in our parking lot.
Tyres
Every single tyre we change gets disposed of in the correct way. Unfortunately it has a per “unit cost” but it’s so satisfying to know that our used rubber doesn’t end up in land fill. They actually get taken to a recycling plant which shreds them, removes the steel radial wire and mulches the rubber for various uses. Some of the rubber gets put back into asphalt for our roads, some of it ends up in the flooring of children’s playgrounds, and some of it gets shipped overseas. But none of it gets wasted. If you prefer to change your own tyres and would like to dispose of the old ones responsibly, feel free to bring them in. Unfortunately the disposal price changes according to the market but a couple of bucks is small price to pay for doing the right thing.
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Batteries
This is probably our most hazardous and toxic waste product. Batteries can be filled with anything from lead peroxide, lithium and even sulfuric acid. But every single battery we remove from a bike is collected and sent to a recycler free of charge. There, they disassemble the components and recycle every part of the battery, from the plastic to the terminals even the metal. Every part of the battery is recycled. If you’ve replaced your own battery and you would like to dispose of the old one, just bring it in, we’ll do the right thing and it’s free of charge.
contact usOil Filters
You wouldn’t believe how much residual oil remains in an empty oil filter! Every oil filter we remove from a bike during an oil change gets collected and left to drain. Once the stockpile is big enough, we CRUSH them to remove the oil that is soaked into the internal mesh. From 30 (empty) used oil filters we extract about 2 litres of used engine oil. The crushed filters are put in the metal scrap for recycling and the extracted oil is put in our sump, also to be collected for recycling. If you do your own oil changes, feel free to bring in the old filter and we’ll do the right thing, it’s free of charge
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Scrap Metal
It’s amazing how much stuff we collect in a month. Oil filters, brake pads, discs, foot pegs, handlebars, chains, sprockets, levers, cables, even exhausts… It’s all metal, and it can all be recycled. Once a month someone comes to collect our used metal items and takes them straight to the scrap yard where it is sorted and separated. Ferrous and non-ferrous metals are melted and reused. Don’t throw your used parts away, bring them in and we’ll get them recycled, no charge. Our scrap metal bin is available for deposits 24/7 in our parking lot.
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