Pump your tyres, pimp your ride: Toronto’s Bike Pirates bring new meaning to recycling

Rather than plunder and pillage, a new generation of pirates is promoting the trifecta of environmentally friendly and socially responsible action: renew, reuse and, above all, re-cycle. Bike Pirates, a group of bicycle enthusiasts in Toronto, has created a shop and workspace where local cyclists can fix and produce their own customised bikes. The volunteer organisation has piles of donated bicycle parts that visitors can use to create new bikes in an effort to make the most of old materials – a social activity both in responsibility and action.

The wartime saying, ‘Make do and mend’, holds particular relevance in the current, slowing economy; Bike Pirates has latched on to this sentiment by inviting members of its community to create new products from their existing goods. By offering a space in which people may be involved in such activities, shops such as the Bike Pirates set themselves apart from other retailers by effecting tangible change in their community.