The story behind Re~Cycle

While Merlin Matthews was studying management at the London School of Economics (LSE), he became Dr Bike (a Student Union Society), fixing bikes in exchange for beers, on Friday evenings.  A Haitian lady approached him for some advice and help about starting up a bike factory in Haiti, as she had seen the need for cheap, pollution free transport for the masses.

Merlin decided it was such a good idea that he would like to help, having given up on the city slicker career path.

He then realised that there are lots of bikes being thrown away which could be fixed.  He was going to set up this project on his own and envisaged getting a "process" established in the UK, then spending most of his time in Haiti running the workshop.  Over time, Merlin realised that he would be of more use to the Haitians and people in other countries if he spent most of the time in the UK, fund-raising, sorting out the bikes and shipping them.

The first really big break came when Re~Cycle found out about that a US charity called the ITDP had been doing the same work in Haiti for 10 years.  As they were a non-profit organization, we decided to work with them and learn from their extensive experience.

The ITDP asked if we would like to send a container of bikes to South Africa, if they paid for it, and we said "yes" pretty quickly, to help get a track record.  Re~Cycle and ITDP helped to set up an independent South African charity, Afribike, which delivered Phase 1 of the National Department of Transport’s nationwide bicycle program, "Shova Kalulua" (Pedal Easy) setting up 11 workshops, with a focus on Kwa Zulu Natal and the Northwest Province.  Now Re~Cycle's bikes get shipped to Africa, which is a huge place with a lot of need.