photo by: Mackenzie Clark

A large pile of Veo bikes sits at the 12th and Haskell Recycling Center, 1006 E. 11th St., on Wednesday, April 8, 2020.

Story updated at 5:20 p.m. Wednesday

Anyone who walked by a local scrap yard this week saw an eye-catching pyramid of dozens of bright red and blue bicycles, some of them with no apparent damage. But the company who owned the bikes defended the pile, saying they couldn’t be donated.

The bicycles, piled approximately 20 feet high at the 12th & Haskell Recycling Center, 1006 E. 11th St., belonged to the bike-sharing company Veo, formerly known as VeoRide. Southeast regional manager Andrew Miles said that the vast majority of the bicycles required significant repair and that attempts to donate the others failed.

More specifically, Miles said “roughly 20” of the company’s pedal bicycles were recently removed from the University of Kansas campus after Veo’s contract with the university ended and could have been donated with only minor repairs. He said the others, in the ballpark of 65 to 75 bicycles, had significant damage, such as bent frames, or required repairs or replacement of brakes, gears or cranks.

“Those bikes were going to be, in all likelihood, recycled because a lot of those were damaged, and the ultimate refurbishment cost would have exceeded a new unit altogether,” Miles said. “And so that’s why they ended up there.”

Miles said those bikes had been in storage and were being recycled in anticipation of the company’s participation in a City of Lawrence pilot program for electric scooters. As the Journal-World previously reported, Veo requested the city’s permission to add electric scooters to its fleet of rentable vehicles last year and the city has issued a request for proposals for an electric scooter pilot program, which currently does not have a start date.

If the city allowed Veo to bring scooters to Lawrence, the company stated in its request that it would remove 100 pedal bikes from its fleet, rebrand them to remove VeoRide and University of Kansas logos, and donate them to low-income communities in Lawrence. When asked about that component of Veo’s request, Miles said there were still pedal bikes in Veo’s fleet and making a donation was still an option in the future.

Regarding the approximately 20 bicycles recently taken off the street, he said that attempts were made with some local organizations to donate the bikes in March but that stay-at-home orders related to the coronavirus had interfered.

photo by: Mackenzie Clark

A stack of Veo bikes sits at the 12th and Haskell Recycle Center on April 8, 2020.

Media relations director Amy Hesser said Veo reached out to the Boys and Girls Club but did not hear back. She said that Miles attempted to get hold of Lawrence Unchained Bicycle Co-op, a nonprofit, volunteer-run shop, but did not “get through.” Hesser also said Goodwill said the bikes were too damaged to accept and that other plans also did not work out.

“There was another plan where we were going to team with a local business and have some kids repaint and refurbish the handful of the ones that were OK, but because of COVID-19 and all the shutdowns and social distancing, that plan had to go out the window,” Hesser said. “Part of it too was, everything was starting to get shut down right away with COVID-19. So we had to do things quickly to take care of the situation, to be responsible with the bikes.”

Hesser said many of the damaged bicycles were not safe to ride and that the decision was made to recycle the bikes for scrap metal.

Meanwhile, photos of the pile of bikes circulating on social media this week have been generating criticism from Lawrence residents, and some organizations have volunteered to help refurbish the bicycles.

The Lawrence Re-Cyclery at 229 Elm St., owned by Kristie and Brian Shay, even got in touch with the salvage yard. Kristie Shay said the salvage yard agreed Wednesday to hold off on scrapping the bikes for the time being so alternatives could be discussed. Shay said the shop was willing to coordinate with other shops or organizations that want to help refurbish the bicycles. She said that the repairs could be done in a cost-effective way and other bikes could be used for parts.

“The Lawrence Re-Cyclery is not looking to make a single dollar off of this situation,” Shay said. “We’re just super passionate that anything salvageable gets back into the community.”

Hesser confirmed that the Lawrence Re-Cyclery is coordinating directly with the 12th & Haskell Recycling Center regarding other possibilities for the bikes. She said the photo on social media was taken out of context and that Veo had determined it would be a bigger carbon footprint to do what was needed to make the bikes rideable.

Though Veo operates the bike-sharing service, the company made agreements with KU and the City of Lawrence when it brought its service to Lawrence, and further agreements would need to be approved if the company were to bring electric scooters to the city in the future. City spokesman Porter Arneill said in an email to the Journal-World that the pilot program for electric scooters was on hold. He said that prior to the coronavirus, the start date was scheduled for June 1, but that start date is now unknown. Arneill said the city was not aware of Veo’s plans to scrap the bicycles and that Veo had not communicated regarding the donation noted in the scooter request.

KU spokeswoman Erinn Barcomb-Peterson said Wednesday that while the bikes were branded with the university logo and colors, they were owned and operated by Veo. She said the bikes in the photo circulating on social media were severely damaged or near the end of their life cycle. Ultimately, she said, Veo made the decision to metal-scrap the bikes in an effort to “always strive for sustainability.”

KU Parking and Transit Director Donna Hultine said that KU’s contract with Veo ended March 30. Hultine said she didn’t think the pedal bikes were very well used and that it was agreed they would be removed from campus. She said the discussion with Veo had always been that the bikes taken out of service would be donated, and that scrapping the bikes was not what she expected. She said she understood the angry response to the photo.

“In a place that values recycling and sustainability, that’s hard to see,” Hultine said. “That was hard for me to see too.”

Hultine said that KU does not currently have a contract with Veo, but that discussion of a contract for only the company’s electric bikes was ongoing and those bikes currently remained on campus. She said she doesn’t know whether KU will decide to extend that contract or not.

“There is nothing settled,” Hultine said. “It’s just sort of a tough contrast to look at the fate of the pedal bikes and say, ‘Let’s just move on with electric bikes.'”

— Reporter Conner Mitchell contributed to this story.

photo by: Mackenzie Clark

The image of a Jayhawk is pictured on one Veo bicycle in a large stack at the 12th and Haskell Recycle Center, 1006 E. 11th St., on Wednesday, April 8, 2020.