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Rostock in the scrap bike spiral: Over 280 bikes in 2025!
Rostock will see an increase in scrap bikes in 2025, causing disposal problems and urban challenges.
Rostock in the scrap bike spiral: Over 280 bikes in 2025!
The problem of junk bikes is becoming more and more pressing in northern German cities. In Rostock, for example, the number of bicycles that were no longer roadworthy rose dramatically in the first half of 2025. 280 such bikes have already been reported, while there were only 96 reports in all of 2023. In 2022, the number of scrap bicycles was 329. Given this increase, the Rostock city administration has expressed the suspicion that the increase is directly related to the increasing number of e-bikes, which are often no longer used by their owners. Wismar FM reports that in other cities such as Schwerin, Neubrandenburg and Stralsund no statistics are kept on the disposal of scrap bicycles.
The situation in Wismar is also interesting, where only 22 bicycles were disposed of in 2024. Here, old bikes are first marked with a notice and the owners have four weeks to remove their bike. Over 50 percent of these bikes find their way back to their owners within this period. In nearby Greifswald, however, around 120 bicycles that were no longer in use were disposed of last year, with a particular focus on the station forecourt, where 68 scrap bikes alone were removed. These bicycles not only represent an aesthetic problem, but can also become a hindrance and danger in public spaces.
High costs and effort for disposal
Disposing of such bicycles is not only a logistical problem, but also a financial one. According to an analysis by Sazbike, scrap bicycles burden many cities in Germany with considerable costs caused by personnel deployment and cleaning campaigns. In large cities such as Hamburg, Cologne and Munich, several thousand scrap bikes are removed every year. For example, in Hamburg, over 4,600 bicycles have to be removed every day, while the total cost of disposal in Germany is estimated at 16 to 25 million euros annually.
These financial burdens are due not least to the fact that public order offices are often understaffed and have great difficulty recording the bikes and disposing of them appropriately. While only 876 of 1,920 marked bicycles were removed in Berlin-Steglitz in 2022, this shows how stressful and time-consuming the problem of junk bicycles is.
Problem-solving initiatives
The challenges posed by junk bicycles are diverse, and it remains to be hoped that consistent measures will sustainably improve the situation in cities. A collective commitment by cities could make the streets more beautiful again and at the same time reduce the pressure on public spaces.