Community Can Cycle shows the way!

12.00.00am GMT Mon 4th Dec 2006

Glasgow Liberal Democrat MSP Robert Brown has praised the work of Community Can Cycle, on a visit to the award winning bicycle and can recycling project in Castlemilk.

The group have recently moved into larger premises in Drakemire Drive after outgrowing their original site. The MSP was visiting the project along with King's Park and Croftfoot Liberal Democrat Councillor Margot Clark.

Community Can Cycle repairs and restores bikes, specifically for low income families in Castlemilk and the surrounding areas. It is a community business, substantially funded by its aluminium and steel can and glass lemonade bottle collection service. This operates throughout Glasgow and surrounding area - collecting amongst others from Rutherglen Town Hall, as well as many other local pubs, clubs and schools - providing the raw materials for their recycling plant to recycle and sell to reprocessing companies for money.

Congratulating them on their new premises, Robert Brown said:

"Community Can Cycle is quite simply the best Community Business I have come across. Jim O'Donnell, who runs the project, is one of the few people who really make a difference in the world. I have visited them a number of times before and each time I go back, Jim has a new idea to tell me about. Community Can Cycle's new premises are fantastic, and there are now brand marked can collecting vans all over the place.

His list of can collectors is amazing and I have never seen so many bikes in one place as in his store. Now, just about every child in Castlemilk and the surrounding area has a bike, and he has been sending bikes to Malawi and other parts of Africa to help the children there - some of whom have to walk 10 miles a day to school. The Community Can Cycle idea is being used and copied by a growing number of other groups across Scotland.

Above all, Community Can Cycle are really motivating young people to be aware of the importance of recycling."

ends

Notes for Editors

Community Can Cycle was started in 2000 by a group of dedicated local people who identified the need for a bicycle repair service for the children of low income families in Castlemilk, Glasgow.

http://www.communitycancycle.org.uk