Thursday, 28 March 2024
EnvironmentNews

Bike shops becoming Trash Free Trails community hubs

Trash Free Trails has launched an initiative focused on engage UK Bike Stores and Cycling Centres, join together in their mission to remove single-use pollution from places they know, ride, and love.

As an international community of runners, riders and roamers, on a mission to reconnect people with nature through the simple, yet meaningful act of reducing single-use pollution, TFT tackle terrestrial pollution with an upbeat, optimistic and welcoming attitude. And better yet – their latest programme, ‘TFT Community Hubs’, is opening a long guarded gate between individual action and community activism.

TFT Community trail graphic sign

What are ‘TFT Community Hubs’? At their simplest, TFT Community Hubs are a local business, organisation, or physical space who have been inspired by the TFT mission, and want to bring it to their own community.

Who can help, and how? TFT are piloting this free programme for people who are already ‘community leaders’ who want to advocate for TFT’s work. The programme is open to cafes, local shops, bike stores, cycling and outdoor centres, community centres and village halls.

woman and man in t shirts and bike helmets, outside of Leeds Urban Bike Park with a TFT binWhat can you expect.

  • A digital pack to help you tell your community you’re a TFT Community Hub
  • An Invitation to our Online Community Hub Forum, where you can meet other, like-minded organisations who have joined in with our mission
  • Promotion of your participation in the programme through the TFT channels
  • Invitations to TFT events
  • The support of a global community of organisations like yours who love and protect their trails

What TFT ask of you

  • To organise and host your own community park or trail cleans regularly throughout the year
  • To report what you remove to our State of Our Trails Report
  • To engage your community with our mission and our DIO approach
  • To shout about your participation in the TFT Community Hubs programme loud and proud through your networks
  • To feedback to TFT HQ your ideas and reflections on the programme, so that we can grow it together!

With over 100 TFT Community Hubs already discoverable across the UK, it’s clear that local communities are not only concerned about litter in their area – they’re ready to do something about it too.

TFT team and volunteers in wooded area with TFT sign held up

To join the TFT Comnuity Hub programme, email projects@trashfreetrails.org sharing your organisation’s name and location, also highlighting if you have any experience of trail or park cleaning (don’t worry if not – TFT are here to help you get started!)

Trash Free Trails believe bike shops, cycling centres and bike parks, as cornerstones of local cycling communities, are the key to getting more bikers invested in their mission. Rachel Coleman, TFT Communications Manager says: “For many riders, bike shops aren’t just a place to get repairs. They’re places to meet, socialise, get inspired and make new mates. By becoming TFT Community Hubs, these places simply add to what they offer their customers, providing them with new ways to connect with and take care of the places they ride.”