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������ students are benefiting from the scheme, where discarded bicycles are refurbished by offenders in prison workshops in a charitable initiative.

Caius Deputy Head Porter Pete Boyden initiated the use of the programme at Caius, with Recycle Your Cycle selling bikes to undergraduate freshers on their arrival on Tuesday. The initiative was welcomed by students, who were able to purchase fully functional, used cycles, for low prices. 

“The students were very pleased with the quality of the bikes,” Pete says. “Recycle Your Cycle sold 30 bikes, which shows the demand is there.

“All Caius students, staff and academics register their bikes, and each year we cull bicycles that have been left behind. We passed on 60 to 70 bikes to Recycle Your Cycle earlier this year. Many were in a state of disrepair and it is great that they can be refurbished by a good cause for charitable benefit.”

is a social enterprise that has help establish bicycle repair workshops in 10 prisons around the UK, employing over 150 offenders. Within these workshops offenders are trained in bicycle repair and refurbishment and in some cases this leads to a City & Guilds qualification in bicycle mechanics. 

These workshops help with the offenders’ rehabilitation and future employment prospects and potential self-employment opportunities. Bikes are donated from sources including universities, police and councils. The bikes are refurbished and then supplied to UK charity retailers for them to sell in their shops to help raise additional funds. Recycle Your Cycle refurbish in the region of 300 bikes per month.

The benefits include reducing landfill waste, meaningful work for offenders, employment opportunities for offenders, raising additional funds for UK charities and making the social, heath and financial benefits of cycling available to more people.

will also be at Darwin College, Cambridge this month.

Two of the bicycles available through Recycle Your Cycle at Caius' Harvey Court site