When bicycles break down or become old, many people abandon or dispose of them. Rather than consign these bikes to the dumpster, a New Taipei sanitation crew repairs and sells them, donating the proceeds to charity. 

In just a few minutes, this bicycle has been taken apart and its broken parts and tires skillfully restored. He De-long is a sanitation worker. He restores bicycles abandoned by local residents.

He De-long
Zhonghe Sanitation Worker
The central axle doesn’t shake, so the whole wheel axle rotates smoothly. The noise is from broken ball bearings inside, which we can remove and replace.

Over the past few years, Taiwan has seen a bicycle boom accompanied by the discarding of old bikes. A sanitation crew in New Taipei’s Zhonghe District established a repair center which collects between 20 and 30 bicycles each week. It refurbishes and gives them new life.

Wu Chiu-chuan
Zhonghe Sanitation Captain
For a while small folding bicycles were popular, though road bikes later became trendy. We recovered the folding bikes that people tossed out. Now, we get a lot of women’s bikes because they too seem to be switching to road bikes.

After the abandoned bicycles are repaired, a special auction is held with all proceeds donated to charity. 

This repair center has allowed the New Taipei sanitation team to breathe new life into discarded bicycles.