Community reporter Stan Skarzynski has a moving experience confronting society’s wastefulness at an Oxfordshire recycling workshop.

“Our mission is to repurpose, recycle and reuse, so less things go to the landfill.”

So explains Tony, who volunteers at Bicester Green.

He shows me into a bike garage, in the spring the busiest part of the social enterprise established in 2013.

Dozens of bikes stand there in various stages of refurbishment.

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“When a bike is given to us, we do a general MOT, check the frame, tires, brakes,” Tony tells me.

“Ones with a card are done and for sale.

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“As we make sure that we sell roadworthy ones, some are beyond repair so we cannibalise the parts to repair other ones.”

Prices are unbeatable: a safe and sound bike starts at £20-40 and the most expensive one I found, a beautiful vintage road bike, costs £190.

The next container he shows me into is the wood workshop, with stacks of wood and a variety of items inside and around it.

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Among them are an already-repaired wooden toy wheelbarrow next to a dollhouse waiting to be repaired and two impressive beehives.

“It was a bespoke order,” Tony explains about the beehives: “We were given the plans and built these from what we have here.

“Earlier we made an outside bar for a lady, the same way.”

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He underlined that the goal is to buy as little as possible, so except for occasional screws and sandpaper that cannot be obtained elsewhere, the workshop uses recycled wood and other materials.

A third container houses the shop and electrical repair workshop.

It is filled with and surrounded by a weird array of items from furniture, through small electrical items such as toaster (£2.50), kettle (£4), hair dryers (£1-2) and printers (£15) to an astounding collection of tools for gardening, woodwork and car repairs.

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All the electric items pass electric safety tests.

The initiative is operated by volunteers like Tony.

“I came here five years ago,” he says: “I’m retired, I like doing things, I wanted to learn how to maintain bikes.

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“Of course woodworking, electrical and engineering skills are in demand, but big part of Bicester Green is that volunteers meet people who teach new skills and make sure it is all safe.”

Bicester Green, The Yard, Launton Road, Bicester, OX26 6PS

Open weekdays (except Wednesdays) 10-5 and Saturdays 10-4.