I think we need to get to grips with this ‘ocean fill’ statement and assumptions about how bad the bicycle industry is to the environment.
I will start by saying that ANY waste dumped into the ocean is wrong, and that I am sure there is room for most companies to improve in all areas but…
Do we have any real facts about this ocean fill carbon ‘story’, other than the Pole / Sick Bikes marketing talk? By this I mean actual facts, such as how much is getting dumped, who is dumping it, where etc?
Do we have any facts about how much aluminium or steel production waste is dumped into the sea or how much the mining of other elements used in its production ruin the environment, the oils used in quenching / heat treating, the resources used in terms of electricity, heat etc?
My point is that it has become fashionable now to just say ‘ocean fil’ to any carbon product – do we think Hope grind up carbon and dump it into the sea for example?
The nature of business will bring waste, it is upto us all to reduce this waste and get behind companies that are actively trying to achieve this but dont get behind mis-information and effective marketing, that wont help anyone!
E.g. Pole – We are going to CNC machine frames now, is that really better for the environment or would producing carbon in their own country be better? I have NO idea, but the facts would be nice to see – are the benefits being guessed at by Pole?
Same example for another speaker on this subject – Sick bikes, though tiny in comparison to Pole talk a lot about this subject, cutting out carbon due to its environmental impact.
If you look at their range though they have Ti frames made overseas (is Ti production environmentally friendly? How about shipping across the world?) They also have their T-shirts printed entirely in the USA – so a single t-shirt is shipped all of the way round the world to get to a UK customer, the excuse is nobdy in the UK can print T-shirts to their liking but if you truly cared about he envionmental impact of your practices wouldnt you knock the product on the head until you could get it done here, Im sure somebody could do it – Planting a tree per sale doesnt really remove the issue, does doing one good thing cancel out the bad, again if you are going to say it have figures to back it up, not guesswork.
Anyone that is vocal about their own environmental practices and is trying to convince others rather than just making a small statement saying ‘we try our best’ will be under fire about all of their own practices – at the moment we dont have any facts about the subject to be able to draw a realistic conclusion. /Rant Over.