Between 2020 and 2030, over 12 million electric bikes are expected to be sold in the United States, each with a lithium battery that should never be thrown away. When you add in pedal bikes, old tires, and used tubes, it becomes clear that our clean transportation has an end-of-life issue that most riders rarely consider.

A bicycle is one of the easiest things in your garage to recycle. Its frame is made of steel, aluminum, or titanium; the tires and tubes are rubber, and an e-bike battery contains valuable materials like lithium, cobalt, nickel, and copper. The main challenge is that most people do not know where these parts should go, so bikes often end up in landfills.

Here is how you can keep every part of a bike, whether regular or electric, in use or in the recycling system.

The Waste Nobody Counts

There is no federal data that tracks bicycles separately. The EPA says Americans created 292.4 million tons of municipal solid waste in 2018, but bikes are hidden in that number. The most-repeated estimate — about 15 million bicycles discarded each year, a figure provided by the junk-removal company 1-800-GOT-JUNK — is a global number. However, it is often repeated as though it applied to the U.S. alone. Investment research firm Harding Loevner counts roughly 170 million bicycles in the United States, replaced on average about every 10 years, which suggests new sales near 17 million units a year. That implies a comparable number leaving service annually, and no one tracks where they go.

It is easier to understand the waste from bike parts. Schwalbe, a tire maker, estimates that nearly 10 million bike inner tubes end up in U.S. landfills each year. These tubes are made of butyl rubber, which can persist in the ground for centuries. On a local scale, Seattle’s Bike Works handles 5,000 to 8,000 donated bikes each year, keeping about 250,000 pounds out of the landfill, and that’s just one nonprofit.

E-bike batteries are emerging as the biggest challenge. The 12 million e-bikes sold mean at least 12 million batteries will need to be dealt with this decade. Since these batteries only last a few years with heavy use, Outside magazine estimates the real number could be 24 to 36 million when replacements are included. Recycling these batteries is important. A 2025 Stanford University study in Nature Communications found that recycling lithium-ion batteries produces less than half the greenhouse gases of mining new metals and uses about a quarter of the water and energy.

Start With Reuse: A Working Bike Beats Scrap

A bike that can still be ridden is much more valuable than as scrap metal. Terry Laibach, a waste-reduction supervisor with New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation, recommends taking bikes to reuse centers, repair cafés, thrift stores, or donation programs before considering the scrap yard. There are national and local networks that make this simple:

• Working Bikes in Chicago has given more than 150,000 donated bicycles new life since 1999, redistributing them locally and internationally.
• Boston’s Bikes Not Bombs accepts not just whole bikes but parts, accessories, and even cracked frames with usable components, the kind of donation many shops turn away.
• Local bike co-ops, such as Community Cycles in Boulder and the Silicon Valley Bicycle Exchange, fix up donated bikes, sell tools and repair time, and accept spare parts. To find one near you, search for “bike co-op” along with your city.

Most reuse nonprofits cannot accept electric bikes because their batteries need special handling and storage. Bike Works, for example, does not take e-bikes and suggests selling yours and donating the money instead. You can sell a working e-bike, give it away, or return it to the manufacturer or a shop that services that brand.

Recycling the Frame and Metal Parts

When a bike can no longer be used, its metal parts are still valuable. Steel, aluminum, and titanium frames can all be recycled as scrap metal. Earth911 recommends removing the tires and tubes, then taking the bare frame to your local scrap yard, where the metal will be recovered and melted down. Chains, cassettes, and other steel or alloy parts can be recycled the same way.

Carbon fiber frames are different. These composite frames are not accepted as scrap metal and remain difficult to recycle. Only a few specialty repair and recycling businesses in the U.S. can handle them. If you have a cracked carbon frame, repairing it is usually better for the environment than throwing it away. Check with a carbon-certified shop before deciding to get rid of it.

Tires and Tubes

Rubber can now be recycled more easily. In December 2024, Trek Bicycle and Liberty Tire Recycling started a nationwide program that lets riders drop off used tires for free at any Trek store in North America. Liberty then turns them into new rubber products.

For inner tubes, Schwalbe’s Cradle-to-Cradle program collects used tubes of any brand through participating bike shops. Once a shop fills a box, they ship it for free, and Schwalbe turns the butyl rubber into new tubes, which already have 20% recycled content. Ask your local shop if they take part, and drop off your used tubes there instead of throwing them away.

Before you recycle, think about upcycling. Companies like Green Guru and Alchemy Goods turn old tubes and tires into bags, wallets, and straps. This gives them a second life and avoids the energy used in recycling.

E-Bike Batteries: The Part That Needs Special Care

Lithium e-bike batteries should never go in household trash or curbside recycling. The EPA warns that these batteries can catch fire if crushed in garbage trucks or sorting machines, and most municipal facilities are not equipped to handle them. This is a real risk. After Seattle banned all batteries from the trash in 2024, the city’s fire department responded to 79 lithium-ion battery fires in two years, many involving e-bikes and e-scooters.

If a battery is swollen, punctured, leaking, hot, or recalled by the manufacturer, it is especially risky. Please refer to Earth911’s guide to handling damaged lithium-ion batteries. Do not put it in a regular battery collection box or drop it off without warning. The good news is that the bike industry built a dedicated pathway. The Battery Network, the nonprofit formerly known as Call2Recycle, runs the Hungry for Batteries program with PeopleForBikes. More than 60 bike-industry brands fund it, including Trek, Specialized, Giant, Pedego, Rad Power, and Super73, plus motor makers Bosch, Shimano, and Yamaha.

For riders, the process is free and simple. Brands pay a recycling fee for each battery, so when your battery reaches the end of its life, you just drop it off at a participating retailer, such as Trek, Rad Power, or REI. Trained staff will package and ship it. According to Forbes, 67% of Americans now live within 10 miles of a drop-off location, and the program collected 60,000 pounds of e-bike batteries in its first year. At the recycling facility, Redwood Materials recovers 95 to 98% of the battery’s materials for use in new cells.

There is one limitation: the program only accepts batteries from participating brands, since those brands pay for recycling. If you have a low-cost or off-brand e-bike, contact the manufacturer for its own take-back program, or bring the battery to a household hazardous waste facility. You can use The Battery Network’s drop-off locator to find the closest site.

What You Can Do

• Ride it longer first. Repair beats replacement on every environmental measure. A tune-up, a new chain, or a carbon repair keeps the whole machine in service.
• Donate anything rideable. Working Bikes, Bikes Not Bombs, and your local co-op will take whole bikes and usable parts; many accept components other shops reject.
• Recycle tires and tubes at the shop. Drop worn tires at a Trek store and dead tubes at any Schwalbe-participating shop instead of the trash.
• Scrap the bare metal frame. Strip tires and tubes, then take a steel, aluminum, or titanium frame to a scrap-metal yard.
• Never trash an e-bike battery. Return participating-brand packs through the Hungry for Batteries network; route off-brand or damaged batteries to household hazardous waste.
• Buy with the end in mind. Choose brands enrolled in battery and tire take-back programs, and favor repairable bikes over disposable ones.

Related Reading

• How To Recycle eBike Batteries
• 12 Things in Your Garage You Can Reuse or Recycle
• How to Recycle Tires
• Home Battery Recycling Guide

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