Spin It Forward: How Our Recycle & Reuse Center Turns Old Bikes Into New Beginnings
Walk into our Recycle & Reuse Center on Tacoma's Martin Luther King Jr. Way, and you'll notice something right away: LOADS of discarded bikes. That wobbly-wheeled mountain bike someone dropped off last week might become tomorrow's commuter bike, complete with a rack, fenders, and a basket. Those loose bolts, brake parts, and cables in our sorting bins are just waiting for their next bike to call home. This is the circular economy in action, and we believe it's a powerful force happening in Hilltop right now.
What Is the Circular Economy, Anyway? You donate, we refurbish, we redistribute, we repeat. Kyle, Confucius, and our program staff coordinate with volunteers to inspect each donation to decide whether it should be lovingly restored, partially repaired, or stripped down for spare parts and turned into inventory. Fully refurbished bikes are for sale at accessible prices. We also sell parts at extremely reduced prices to people in our community to help them keep their own rides rolling! Leftover components get sorted, shelved, and reused in future builds. Anything truly beyond saving gets recycled responsibly, diverted directly from Tacoma's landfill.
Because our Recycle & Reuse Center is 100% donation-based, our inventory is always changing. One visit might turn up a fleet of vintage cruisers, while the next might be all kids' bikes. You can expect volunteering with us to be part treasure hunt, part sustainability project, and completely community-powered.
Expanding Our Impact: How We Use These Bikes
Our circular economy goes far beyond just retail. We use these refurbished bikes and parts to power several vital community programs:
Pedals for the People & Pedal It Forward: We provide free bicycle gifting and basic repair services for low-income individuals who rely on cycling as their primary, essential method of transit.
Earn-a-Bike (EAB) & Youth Court Diversion: Through these programs, young people, including those joining us via juvenile court diversion partnerships, learn step-by-step mechanics by repairing and rebuilding a bicycle. Upon completion, they take home the bike they fully repaired themselves.
Open Shop: Every Friday from 5 to 7pm, we host Open Shop. This is an open space where people can learn the mechanics of their bicycle and repair them! You get free access to tools, work stands, and staff happy to offer guidance to riders of every skill level.
Membership: For those who want to use the shop regularly, we offer a Membership program where people can support our mission while getting steady access to our tools and work benches and our recently donated items.
The Heart Of Our Shop: Volunteers We try to make it as easy as possible to become a volunteer. We are hosting an open house series this Sunday, August 3rd, 11-2 pm. This is our first event in the series where we invite participants to help us contribute to the circular economy. These 3 hours will count toward your volunteer hours and give you the skills and knowledge you will need to help us in the future.
Regular volunteer shifts run Tuesday through Friday, 10am to 4pm, with extra opportunities on select evenings and weekends. The only real requirements are being at least 16 years old, being able to lift up to 40 pounds, handling basic tools, and bringing a willingness to pitch in and follow directions. There are perks, too! You'll get hands-on mechanical skills training, a real connection to Tacoma's cycling community, a free t-shirt after your first 10 volunteer hours, and an invitation to our year-end volunteer appreciation party. Signing up is as simple as visiting our website and clicking through to volunteer.
Mark Your Calendar: Upcoming Events If you've been curious about volunteering but haven't known where to start, we've built the perfect on-ramp: a Volunteer Open House on Sunday, August 23rd, from 11am to 2pm. This three-hour open house is designed specifically for prospective volunteers of any experience level, and it's structured around our circular economy.
Here's what the afternoon looks like:
After check-in and a welcome circle covering the shop's mission and how the circular economy model works, attendees get a shop safety and tool orientation.
Volunteers then rotate through 2 hands-on stations: 1 “Full cycle” stripping donor bikes for parts and 1 “Bite Size” Station where you learn to remove tires from wheels, cut spokes, check tubes, and clean parts.
Lunch will be provided!
By 2pm, you will have earned your first 3 volunteer hours!
Our Circular Economy Open House is just one stop on a packed community calendar. Coming up, you'll find Kidical Mass family bike rides on August 19 and September 12, an Anderson Island community ride on August 29, and the first installment of our Bike and Everyday Science series on September 20.
Celebrating the Staff Behind the Scenes It's worth pausing to appreciate our programming staff who make all of this possible. Building a three-hour, multi-station volunteer open house that's equal parts educational and hands-on takes real thought. That same care shows up across everything we run, from youth programs that removed barriers to cycling for nearly 3,000 young people last year, to adult classes, to the steady rhythm of Open Shop nights every single week.
The staff who design these programs, recruit and train volunteers, and keep our shop welcoming to newcomers are doing the unglamorous, essential work that keeps our mission going.
How You Can Get Involved Whether you're drawn in by the environmental angle, the hands-on mechanical skills, the chance to meet fellow cyclists, or simply the good feeling of keeping something useful out of the landfill, there's a place for you with us. Donate a bike gathering dust in your garage. Stop by an Open Shop Friday to wrench on your ride. Or better yet, come to the Volunteer Open House on August 23rd and see the whole circular economy model in motion, one station at a time.
Find our hours, events, and volunteer sign-ups at 2ndcycle.org, or visit us in person at 1205 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tacoma, WA. We are open Wednesday through Saturday, 10am to 5pm, with Open Shop every Friday evening from 5 to 7pm.
A Special Thanks to Our Funders
We want to take a moment to acknowledge the incredible support that makes our Recycle & Reuse Center and all of these programs possible.
This program is supported in part by Tacoma Creates and Beyond the Bin, both programs of the City of Tacoma.
Public funding is absolutely vital to our organization. It allows us to keep our shop doors open, keep bikes out of the landfill, and keep our community rolling. When you see the Tacoma Creates logo, it helps our attendees and participants understand the importance of the public funding that supports our organization and shows that your local tax dollars are directly supporting the programs that make Tacoma so special!
