Oct 26, 2022
Bolt scooters are built on a modular design, allowing for easier repairability and an industry-leading lifespan of up to 60 months.
They’re also made from 90% aluminium and other recyclable materials. So, if a scooter cannot be repaired and reused after five years of operations, it’s decommissioned and recycled as part of our circular approach to sustainability.
But what if we could do more than just recycle?
Recycling is an industrial process that creates new materials out of old ones. Upcycling, on the other hand, uses old products to create new ones. It relies on already existing materials and reduces the need for recycling altogether, therefore contributing to a more circular economy.
Upcycling can turn plastic bottles into face visors, jars into candle holders, and shoe boxes into plant pots. But what can it do with Bolt scooter frames?
To answer the question, we teamed up with Tanel Veenre, an Estonian designer with a signature style of whimsical, playful creations.
His work has been exhibited in more than 300 solo and group exhibitions around the world. He has been awarded at London Fashion Week and is the recipient of the Golden Needle, Golden Egg, and Estonian Cultural Awards, as well as the Kristjan Raud prize.
In short, Tanel knows what he’s doing — and when we delivered some old scooters to his studio, he got straight to work.
After four months of peeling paint, slicing aluminium, smoothing edges, drilling holes, installing screws, anodising, and painting — we finally had a truly upcycled product. Introducing: Hardwear.
Hardwear is the world’s first collection of jewellery made out of scooter frames. With Tanel’s help, we upcycled our oldest scooter models and turned them into a series of earrings, bracelets, and pendants.
They’re available in five colourways (green, purple, blue, white metal, and black) and a range of different finishes. The upcycling process preserved and enhanced the qualities of our scooters, making the collection:
“It was an amazing collaboration! I loved how it broke my routine and taught me so much about a new material — aluminium. I also got to work with geometric forms, which I usually don’t do. And also, human-wise, the collaboration was great; Bolt is such an open and creative brand, and there were no limits except exploring the possibilities of upcycling the scooters”.
Tanel Veenre
You can win a piece of Hardwear via our Instagram channel. It will also be sold directly through Tanel’s online store and shipped globally.
The Hardwear collection is built on two principles:
Sustainability and safety are also the guiding principles of Bolt scooters and e-bikes. Earlier this year, we published our annual 2022 Bolt Scooter Safety Report, which showed the accident rate per 10,000 Bolt scooter rides decreasing by 13% compared to 2021.
And in an effort to improve parking and limit CO2 emissions, we’re installing Bolt charging docks in cities across Europe. In Tallinn alone, they’ve proven to reduce over 300 kg of CO2 emissions per month.
We’re on a mission to fight for better cities and against private cars — and sustainability and safety will always remain at its core.
