Baisikeli’s Recycling Project in Mozambique

The purpose of this small project was to assess the climate effect of re-using old Danish bicycles in Mozambique relative to the current disposal as scrap.

The client

Copenhagen Municipality – Denmark

Our role

2.-0 LCA consultants performed the analysis for Copenhagen Municipality since the bikes are collected as lost property and donated to the Danish Company, Baisikeli, by the Municipality. More information (in Danish) in the report. Project completed September 2013.

Abstract

Bicycles collected as lost property are today disposed of as scrap metal and recycled by re-melting. Baisikeli ApS instead sends bikes to Mozambique where they are made ready for sale and sold locally. Thereby the bikes replace less durable new bikes, mainly manufactured in India.

The purpose of the LCA (climate footprint) is to assess CO₂ savings by recycling bikes in Mozambique relative to re-melt them in Europe. The assessment is made on 8000 second hand bikes, which is the average annual amount of lost property bikes that are sent to scrap from the Copenhagen area.

Overview of the affected activities in the analysed system. Blue boxes represent new activities when reusing the bikes in Mozambique. Brown boxes represent activities that are reduced when reusing the bikes in Mozambique. Note that the net output of the total system is neutral, i.e. the only thing that changes is the way the net output (3 years use of bicycles in Mozambique and metal, respectively) is supplied.