Hamburg North in junk bike fever: The city cleaning department is cleaning up!

Hamburg North in junk bike fever: The city cleaning department is cleaning up!

Today, June 16, 2025, the Hamburg city cleaning department started its annual campaign to remove scrap bicycles. In the Hamburg-Nord district, the premiere was attended by Environment Senator Katharina Fegebank (Greens). Together with the city cleaning team, she accompanied the launch to draw attention to the important project, which was primarily initiated by the district offices.

The campaign has the clear goal of getting bicycles that are parked along train stations and in parks off the streets and are often unused. These “bicycle corpses” not only represent unused moments, but also take up valuable space that benefits new cyclists. That's why the bikes are marked with red stickers before they are removed. The stickers give the owners a period of 14 days within which they can collect their bikes. This leaves enough time to react to the fate of your own bike.

The procedure

In Hamburg-Nord, 17 bicycles have already been successfully removed from the Fuhlsbüttel-Nord subway station. The campaign is scheduled to last two weeks and will gradually be continued in other districts such as Altona, Eimsbüttel, Mitte and Wandsbek. The city cleaning department estimates that more than 4,000 of these scrap bicycles are removed from the cityscape every year.

• Fahrräder werden mit roten Zetteln gekennzeichnet.
• 14 Tage Frist für Abholung durch die Eigentümer.
• 17 Fahrräder am U-Bahnhof Fuhlsbüttel-Nord entfernt.
• Weiterführung in Altona, Eimsbüttel, Mitte und Wandsbek.
• Etwa 20 Prozent der entfernten Fahrräder sind reparaturfähig.

Let's take a closer look at the following phase of the campaign: The bicycles that have been cleared of waste and are in good condition are not simply disposed of, but are allowed to start a new life in the bicycle workshop at the recycling center in Osdorf. Here they are refreshed and finally find their way to the “Stilbruch” used goods department stores. This not only ensures that resources are used sustainably, but also creates affordable offers for everyone who wants to buy a used bike.

More space for cyclists

With this measure, the city cleaning department also aims to create sufficient parking spaces for active cyclists in Hamburg. It often happens that parking spaces are taken up by junk bicycles, which means there is a shortage of space for those who actually want to use the two-wheelers. In order to remedy this situation, another district is cleared of old bicycles every week until the number of around 650 old bicycles is reached in mid-November.

The commitment of the Hamburg City Cleaning Department and the support of the Environment Senator are evidence of the ongoing efforts to make the city not only cleaner, but also more bicycle-friendly. A good step in the right direction!