Bike couriers diversify by hauling recyclables

Columbus Dispatch

COLUMBUS

Ian Dowden gets some funny looks as he rides his bike through downtown streets pulling a trailer loaded with cardboard, pop cans, beer bottles and newspaper.

Who, after all, hauls their recyclables by bike?

But it makes sense to Dowden, who is a bike courier by trade and an environmentalist at heart. He’s keeping stuff out of landfills and using pedal power instead of nonrenewable energy to haul recyclables to a collection point.

And he’s building a livelihood.

Like other bike couriers around the world, Dowden is trying to diversify his business as his bread and butter — the delivery of legal documents — continues to shrink. More and more courts allow or require lawyers and court workers to file electronically.

Franklin County Common Pleas Court plans to phase in electronic filing for its civil division beginning in late summer or early fall; U.S. District Court in Columbus has had electronic filing for several years.

Dowden, 33, and friend Monica Johnson, 29, began offering recycling by bike downtown a year ago through their company, C.S. Courier.

For $5 a week or $20 a month, they pick up an individual’s recycling and haul it to a collection box. For $30 a month, they’ll do the same for a business. So far, they have five or six clients and can haul up to 100 pounds in the trailer.

Recycling by bike isn’t new; companies and co-ops in places from Ames, Iowa, to Philadelphia have been doing it for years.

Johnson said the idea is slow to catch on in Columbus; many can’t fathom the idea of a bike’s hauling much more than its rider. But it makes sense downtown, where parking often is at a premium and bikes sometimes move quicker than motor vehicles, she said.