The Cardboard Bicycle (From the Archives)

What better way to become green that to get the most popular and least polluting mode of personal transport and having it made out of what else, cardboard. Yep, cardboard, that stuff that is used for all types of packaging for mostly all the stuff we buy. From cellphones, TV’s and other consumer electronics, they all come in cardboard boxes. It is not only cheap and extremely recyclable, it is also light and quite strong (well if you don’t drive it in the rain that is, kidding it is waterproof and will not break-up in the rain). It also addresses the most plaguing problem with respect to bikes which is theft. In the UK alone, thousands of bikes are stolen each and every year and the statistics keep rising.
Some bicycles are indeed expensive with all the aftermarket upgrades and rare alloys that they now come in. From carbon fiber to tungsten and titanium parts, they are all vandalized or stolen even when chained to a lamppost. The cardboard bike is also cheap at $30.00 and when they reach the end of their life (which is still miserably short at 3 months) they can be disposed of easily without worry of pollution or contamination of the environment. The cardboard parts are simply re-made into other cardboard products then re-injected into the cycle once again. The cardboard used by the inventor was used to make pallets or crates and was rated to carry 2,500lbs(but he does agree that a stronger version for heavier people might be needed). The cardboard bike is still in the prototype stage and any commercial product would still have to undergo further testing and testing for it to go into full-scale production.

Posted by Nick at 5:03 pm under General, Home & Garden