Round Up: Sustainable e-MTB Batteries, Cleaning 10,000 Pieces of Trash from Trails and More Green Initiatives
2021 has already seen plenty of new green initiatives with Endura reaching their goal of one million trees planted and their new plan of becoming carbon neutral. But there are plenty of other smaller announcements that move the industry forward in reducing its impact on the environment.
Trash Free Trails Reveal They have cleaned up 2,500km of Trails:
Trash Free Trails has launched its first impact report after three years of campaigning against single-use plastic pollution.
The UK-based group, which currently aims to reduce plastic pollution on our trails and wild places by 75% by 2025, has released a report documenting their work so far and its future aims and projects. Plastic pollution is a worsening global environmental issue and Trash Free Trails (TFT) has found that most of the research into its impact has focused on marine environments. But, estimates suggest that annual plastic release on land is between 4 to 23 times worse.
Through its work since 2017, TFT has found a large gap in the current research into the impact of single-use plastic pollution outside of marine environments. It believes this has created an urgent need for more work in this area. TFT hopes to fill this void with its growing trail cleaning movement and upcoming 'State of the Trails' report.
 | At Trash Free Trails we believe that fostering a connection between grassroots environmental stewardship and academic research can play an important role in the future of environmental conservation |
As part of its first impact report released this week, TFT has included some of their highlights from 2019 to 2020. This report features some impressive figures about its work cleaning up the trails. In the two years, it cleaned up 2,500km of trails with 10,000 individual items removed on trail cleans.
The next step for TFT is the State of Our Trails report, produced in partnership with Bangor University. This report will be the first peer-reviewed empirical study of its kind using citizen science to establish the amount, causes and impacts of terrestrial litter on our trails and wild places. Currently, TFT is aiming to release the baseline study findings later this year in June.
You can read the full report from TFT here.
Santini are Introducing Compostable Packaging:
Clothing brand Santini has announced that it will be swapping out its packaging for a compostable alternative.
With most of the industry still wrapping clothing in plastic, Santini has revealed that it will be moving to a more sustainable alternative by using TIPA’s compostable packaging. This news comes after Santini and the UCI announced that the future World Championship jerseys will use recycled fabrics.
| So this means that it won’t just be the cycling wear that is environmentally friendly but its packaging too! Thanks to our agreement with TIPA, we will also using compostable packaging from January 2021. That is our commitment to becoming increasingly sustainable and lessening our environmental impact. |
| TIPA’s packaging is a truly sustainable alternative to traditional single-use plastic packaging materials, because it guarantees the same protection to its contents but completely biodegrades, returning to the earth as compost. TIPA’s packaging can be thrown in domestic composite bins – in the wet waste – and will then disintegrate within six months and fully biodegrade within a year. |
TIPA's alternative packaging aims to offer the same advantages of plastic, but it will instead fully decompose within three months with no harmful impact on the environment.
The EU Commission Wants to Make Batteries More Sustainable:
As part of its Green New Deal, the EU Commission wants to set out guidelines to ensure all batteries are more sustainable throughout their life cycle.
The new ideas will be introduced as key goals of the Green New Deal and cover all types of batteries leading to some potentially interesting ramifications for the future of eMTBs.
According to the Commission, demand for batteries is set to increase 14 fold by 2030, with most of the demand driven by the electric transport market including e-MTBs. The rapidly increasing demand will lead to issues around the raw materials needed for production and a potentially huge impact on the environment.
The ideas set forth by the Commission include:
- Batteries placed on the EU market should become sustainable, high-performing and safe all along their entire life cycle
- From 1 July 2024, only rechargeable industrial and electric vehicles batteries for which a carbon footprint declaration has been established, can be placed on the market
- To close the loop and maintain valuable materials used in batteries for as long as possible in the European economy, the Commission proposes to establish new requirements and targets on the content of recycled materials and collection, treatment and recycling of batteries at the end-of-life part
- To significantly improve the collection and recycling of portable batteries, the current figure of 45% collection rate should rise to 65 % in 2025 and 70% in 2030 so that the materials of batteries we use at home are not lost for the economy. Other batteries – industrial, automotive or electric vehicle ones – have to be collected in full
- The proposed regulation defines a framework that will facilitate the repurposing of batteries from electric vehicles so that they can have a second life
- The use of new IT technologies, notably the Battery Passport and interlinked data space will be key for safe data sharing, increasing transparency of the battery market and the traceability of large batteries throughout their life cycle
| Clean energy is the key to European Green Deal, but our increasing reliance on batteries in, for example, transport should not harm the environment. The new batteries regulation will help reduce the environmental and social impact of all batteries throughout their life cycle. Today's proposal allows the EU to scale up the use and production of batteries in a safe, circular and healthy way. |
| The Commission puts forward a new future-proof regulatory framework on batteries to ensure that only the greenest, best performing and safest batteries make it onto the EU market. This ambitious framework on transparent and ethical sourcing of raw materials, carbon-footprint of batteries, and recycling is an essential element to achieve open strategic autonomy in this critical sector and accelerate our work under the European Battery Alliance. |
Royal Racing Launches New Jerseys Made Using Recycled Materials:
Royal Racing has launched two new riding jerseys that are made from 100% recycled materials.
The jerseys from part of Royal Racing's new Quantum range and instead of using a polyester/cotton mix, like the company's other jerseys, will instead feature 100% recycled polyester. The Quantum jerseys will still feature the anti-bacterial treatment that Royal uses across its range which it claims will allow you to "wear your jerseys for longer in between washes, improving the lifespan of your jersey and lightening the environmental impact."
| The Quantum Jersey is made using 100% recycled fabric. We’ve discovered a fabric that not only stands up to the rigours of life on a bike, but it’s a fabric that’s 100% recycled. So we’re really pleased to finally release this 100% recycled technical mountain bike jersey. |
You can see the whole Quantum range here.
Decathlon are Looking into Circular Economy Strategies for its Bike Sales:
Decathlon has revealed plans to launch a circular sales scheme for its bike sales later this year.
The strategy, which takes ideas from the Circular Economy concept, will see Decathlon sell recycled or used bikes and components alongside the current range of new bikes. With the current shortage of bikes and components, this could be a useful way to keep selling bikes and parts to customers without solely relying on new parts arriving in stores.
UK Cycling Leader Peter Lazarus told Cycling Industry UK the details about some of the schemes that could be taking place in Decathlon shops later this year. Lazarus said: "The Decathlon Second Life Marketplace is due this year across Europe and it will apply to adult and kids’ bikes. The idea is to generate more of a circular economy and various options will be available to customers who may wish to cycle but also not buy new every time.
"We as a company are looking to recycle parts where possible. If we get a defective bike it’s an option to strip it down and re-use the working parts. For the customer, it’s an option to participate in upcycling work and save money. There will be a much bigger effort to repair over replacement where possible.
"Sometimes wheels, for example, may be buckled in transit. These will be switched out, perhaps even with better wheels and the old ones will be repaired. The key is that nothing will go to waste and the bikes sold will be given a full PDI and safety check before they’re displayed and they’ll carry a warranty."
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@Mac1987: No, federal tax is less than 10%. State tax varies by state but Cali is highest.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_taxes_in_the_United_States
I like what you're saying, though. We're just doing what we can with what we've got. It could be better. We're just not there yet.
www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions
news.trust.org/item/20180918083629-d2wf0
Look at this www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/overview-greenhouse-gases
Then look at this.
www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/methane
Methane 28 times more harmful than CO2, so it's worse. Carbon can be offset to a point too.
Only that it is not in any plant... so if you want to boast about a plant only diet you have to supplement it from other sources.
@nhlevi: I also didn't mention anything about vegan.
@lev3000: Not entirely true, but my wife and I only eat local meats or "organic" with a good origin. So thats not an issue for us.
On the whole we just follow a nice balanced diet... with a good amount of alcohol
Even then we'll still supplement a lot, because you can't really trust any food nowadays
@timbud understood, I was just making a statement (since you can't see my being a living statement to the fact) that from a nutrition standpoint, we don't actually need any animal products whatsoever.
Why mention this? Because the main issue with animal agriculture are not only the direct emmissions but the land usage. Only a fraction of all that grazing and fodder producing land would be required to produce the same nutritional value in plant foods. Less agro land -> mo' forests -> less climate change.
This is a joke btw, but there's unfortunately some truth to it, overpopulation is by far the greatest threat to both the environment and society today.
With the whole world moving deeper into consumer capitalism, the pollution and waste is only increasing, per capita too, when you look at it globally.
I honestly think we are f*cked, and that the only solution is either a near extinction event or a 1984/Brave new world dystopia under a one world government.
We know that won't happen anytime soon. Regulating the population is way too slow a solution, and giving up your responsibility certainly won't help further the cause an inch, so the next best thing we can do is 1.) make better lifestyle choices 2.) be loud, obnoxious, enthusiastic about them so we can influence enough people to follow suit (pick your wheel size, be a dick about it method).
@Chuckolicious that's so, and there are two points I was trying to make.
First, we do not need all that land, since a ton of *grain* feeds hundreds of people, whereas it only raises a handful of cows and those few cows only feed even fewer people over the same time period.
Second, we need to reforest the millions upon millions of square miles of thus freed up land that were initially claimed from nature by a deadly combo of logging and then extensive farming. That's by far the best shot we have at surviving climate change.
And I wholeheartedly agree with your ethical case, and there's also a health case against meat, but I've found those to be much harder cold sales than the ecological case. I'll finish off with a cool thing for you that might become a big thing in the future: www.instagram.com/p/CKpjVD9nviA/?igshid=vxgercaffw1t
I'm not here to say that electric mtb's are better than non-motorized ones, that's obviously undisputable.
So your corrola is basically a beige heater. On wheels.
...Minus the part about we're f*cked, he thought "what can I do about?"
Do you know how much does a Tesla battery pack degrade over 100k miles? Do you think it's (financially) reasonable to just throw it in a landfill when the energy density gets too low for a car? #capitalism
Ideas like smart grids and virtual power plants will solve a lot of issues and no sane person would build a massive dam when it's just way cheaper to put a few wind turbines out in the sea somewhere. And the grids won't need to be "100% re-developed" to support it. Sure, it's not a silver bullet - there is no such thing for any big problem, but it's going in a good direction.
Then stop buying from Amazon! But be aware that you also waste energy when you go to a shop to pick the item that you want... And stop being a sheep if you don't like it, but please do some research before trying to become a shepherd
Other colours....I'm not so sure.
I am not at all saying cars are good overall. But you just asked if anything is better than an old car. Just pointing out that we've been developing ICE cars for 100 years, and they are still pretty shit at using fossil fuels efficiently.
"70% of the world is covered in water, why ship it?"
Top marks for all brands involved.
You're exchanging one problem for another one...oh by the way...here is a Lithium mine...doesn't seem like much of an environmental issue...
blog.iseekplant.com.au/blog/lithium-mining-delivers-big-for-wa-increased-spodumene-production
Just be tired of simplistic suggestions
There is no simple solution
Edit: an average ebike battery is 630Wh, and a quick google search tells me that an average car battery is something similar or even larger, 720Wh. Think about that.
Once its at the end of its life the lithium in a battery is still there, and can be extracted, reprocessed and reused.
*Now the real question is: is it being recycled, its no use if it ends up in landfill, of course, but the base point still stands.
I would be interested to know how much "energy" passes through a kg of Lithium in battery format (Amp hours per cycle, x number of cycles in its life) vs the energy contained in a litre of fuel.
Does your exerted power pollute less than the electric motor and battery including manufacture?
How much CO2 does a human produce per kWh?
Industrially compostable stuff needs to be composted at over 60°C before it breaks down.
So neither will biodegrade at all if just left on the trails - that's why they don't start breaking down too early.
1. Belgium should conquer back Congo!