Coming from the climate justice movement and being tired of waiting on the government’s inaction we decided to take the necessary mobility transformation into our own hands and do our part. Cargo-bikes are a fundamental part in this mobility transformation, truly shining in urban spaces and offering a healthy, fun, and useful mode of transportation. However, we should all demand of ourselves to not stop at the first possible solution, but to continually push to be more sustainable, always thinking of the future. Our small contribution to these necessary changes is by both thinking of the future of transport and using the material left behind from our overconsumption, to not contribute further to the problem. By upcycling the immense amount of left over materials from our consumption society, we can turn forgotten materials into new mobility solutions.
The idea of UpCycle was born out of the idea of a few climate activists, to both help people in need
during the first lockdown of 2020, while also showcasing how cargo-bikes can contribute to finding modern
and flexible solutions to urban logistical problems. During the beginning of the COVID pandemic, the Tafel
E.V., a social NGO that helps to provide accessible and healthy food for families, couldn’t continue their
normal food distribution anymore.
Quickly a diverse team of activists, with the support of the fLotte Berlin, got together to organise the
distribution of food across six different districts in Berlin. Cargo-bikes proved much more flexible and
faster in the city, while also not needing to search for parking spaces and being able to directly deliver
the care-packages to peoples door-step. This way we could also reach people that had to quarantine or
isolate themselves because of the pandemic. In 12 weeks, we were able to deliver over 30.000 kgs of food
in around 3000 deliveries, helping many people and families.
During this action we realised how immense of a potential cargo-bikes have, not just to be an essential
part of the necessary mobility transformation, but also to be an empowering tool for social change.
Because of this we wanted to create cargo-bikes that are more accessible and more sustainable than the
fancy and over-engineered cargo-bikes on the market today. We want to provide people with the tools for
change, not a status symbol.
We are a team of activists and makers, trying to do our part to create the world we wish to live in. Coming from backgrounds as diverse as photography, industrial design, European law, and health, we unite behind the idea of making cargo-bikes to transform our ways of moving and connecting places, people, and things by utilising the old and discarded, to create our future from yesterdays trash.
Up-Cycle
when you can’t think of a better name
for combining the word “bicycle” and “Up-cycling”
“The bicycle is the most civilised conveyance known to wo/man.
Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish.
Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.”
- Iris Murdoch
- upcycle -
to build something new from something old.
to reuse the physical structure, the components of something to build / make something new.
to give a 2nd live to an object.
We are really lucky.
We live in such a beautiful place.
That is quite rare in this universe.
For a fact, we’ve only found one this fare.
This Planet.
Earth.
We as humans have evolved to become a big part in this world. Unfortunately our impacts are no longer left
unnoticed. Not for the economically unwealthy parts of this world, not for the animals in this world, not
for Nature, not the Climate, and not for ourselves either
Over the time of our endeavour, as humanity, we have lost what it means to respect this place. What it
means to take care of this place. To treat it well for all the good it is giving us. We have become so
centred around our day to day business that we have forgotten to think about tomorrow. We build machines
that kill and fly us to the Moon. We wast resources on bluetooth headphones and predator drones. We buy to
never use and resell if we don’t throw it away. We drive around in too-big’a cars, that are too-empty and
take away too much space we would so desperately need to protect our well-being and the health of our
planet.
Times have changed.
The environment is starting to dump us back all the waste we have thrown into it. And the future looks
grim if we don’t thoroughly act.
So, one day the opportunity to act and start somewhere came, and we took it.
It didn’t take us long to realise the potential of creating sustainable mobility for people & cargo while
reusing as much as there is. We take what there is and make something that is needed.
democratisation of a mean of transporting Being and carrying goods.
WE NEED TO THINK & ACT IN CIRCULS.
TO REDUCE,
TO REUSE
TO RECYCLE,
TO UpCycle.