To save the world from ecological collapse, activists have drawn up a kind of "5R rule": Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle. It feels like there is an exclamation mark behind each of the English terms. If you want to behave in an environmentally friendly way, you should - in descending order of effectiveness - refuse to consume (Refuse), reduce consumption (Reduce), reuse (Reuse), repair or at least recycle. Unfortunately, most of us are hard-wired to feel happy when we buy and own new things. And as members of an affluent society, we can afford them. The first three "Rs" therefore only work to a limited extent for most cyclists, because you buy a new bike because you expect it to give you more pleasure - not least thanks to technological progress.
Perpetuum mobile
Of course, the new bike will also be technically and emotionally worn out at some point. It would then make sense to try to sell it - so it stays in circulation for as long as possible. Or you could repair the sports bike and use it as a simple means of transport. Pushing it into landfill, on the other hand, is not an option: the term "waste" has also largely become obsolete in politics. The current "Circular Economy Act" does not provide for this. Waste that is simply buried or incinerated should no longer exist. After being used in a product, every material ends up as a raw material in another product.
The peanut tin becomes a bicycle, the bicycle becomes a cooking pot, the cooking pot becomes a machine housing
A kind of perpetual motion machine of sustainability, in which energy - clean energy, of course - paves the way from one use to the next and any leftovers do good as compost.
Unfortunately, that sounds too good to come true in the foreseeable future. Neither our lives nor our sport can currently be run on white eco waistcoats. However, there is no question that our sports and transport equipment will become increasingly sustainable with longer use and high-quality recycling. The first solutions are beginning to emerge. More and more manufacturers are already thinking further ahead than the rubbish bin, both in terms of design and choice of materials.
What does ...
RECYCLING? Recycling is the reutilisation of a material. Using a bicycle helmet as a flower pot is not recycling. However, if it could be melted down and its material processed into a new flower vase, this would fall under the term recycling. The primary raw material of the helmet shell (such as polycarbonate) becomes a secondary raw material - ideally with the same good technical properties.
DOWNCYCLING? This refers to recycling with a significant loss of quality: The resulting secondary raw material has nowhere near the technical quality of the primary raw material. Although the term is used for argumentative purposes, it remains somewhat blurred, as it is difficult to draw a clear line between recycling and downcycling.
BIODEGRADABLE? DIN EN 16575 speaks of "degradation through biological activity, e.g. enzymatic action, which leads to a significant change in the chemical structure." In other words, an organic compound ultimately becomes a mineral substance. In order to assess the environmental compatibility of the substance, other properties, such as toxicity, would have to be taken into account. However, this is not included in the term "biodegradable". The Federal Environment Agency disputes the biodegradability of plastics advertised as such anyway: "According to current assessment procedures (...) all plastics are to be assessed as non-biodegradable."
BIO-PLASTIC? Bio-based plastics are produced on the basis of renewable raw materials (instead of crude oil). They can be biodegradable, but often are not. And biodegradable plastics are not necessarily bio-based.
