Bike brand Roetz highlights circular solutions within the two-wheeler industry in new campaign

Amsterdam-based company wants to create awareness about careful use of raw materials and prevention of waste streams

Circular bike brand Roetz today launches the campaign ‘One Planet. One Bike’ to draw attention to the importance of sustainable and circular bicycles. With the campaign, the Amsterdam-based company wants to create awareness about the careful use of raw materials and the prevention of waste streams, by showing how old bicycles can be reused. With a new website, a campaign video and collaborations with various influencers, Roetz not only wants to motivate consumers to opt for an (electric) bicycle more often, but also to think about the way the bicycle is produced. 

Laurens Nolet, General Manager at Roetz: “A circular economy plays an important role in tackling the climate crisis. It involves closing the chain and dealing with raw materials in a smarter and more economical way, in order to prevent waste and pollution. More and more people are now riding a brand new bicycle. We want to create awareness about how these bikes are produced and what happens to them when they are discarded. Because only when the bicycle is made of recycled materials and can be reused is it really a sustainable choice. Circularity is the future.”

1 million ‘abandoned bikes’
Every year in the Netherlands, approximately 1 million bicycles are discarded and left for waste, while many parts can still be put to good use. Since its inception in 2011, some of these ‘orphaned’ bikes end up at Roetz where new bikes are made from recycled materials. In the factory in Amsterdam-Noord the parts are cleaned, repaired and reassembled into new bicycles.

Circular ambition
Currently, depending on the type of bicycle, Roetz achieves 30% to 80% circularity in its bicycle production. “Not all parts of the orphaned bicycles are reusable. We reuse good quality parts, such as the steel gelugde bicycle frame and the front fork. Other reusable parts flow on to workshops where bicycles are repaired. Materials such as stainless steel, aluminum, rubber and plastic, are sorted so that streams of pure materials are created again. All the new parts we add are of high quality, so the bike lasts longer.” Roetz’s circular ambition goes even further, however. “By designing and assembling bicycle parts in a different way, we can make an even greater impact. Our goal is to launch the first circular e-bike in 2022, which is also optimized for maintenance,” said Nolet. “A team of engineers and designers, led by founder Tiemen ter Hoeven, is working very hard on that right now.”