Bolt recycles its retired scooters to create aluminium jewellery collection

Bolt has collaborated with Tanel Veenre, a renowned Estonian designer, to remodel its retired scooters into fashion jewellery. With his indomitable expertise, the award-winning designer has put together the "Hardwear collection" that features almost 100 hand-crafted bracelets, earrings and pendants.

The aircraft-grade aluminium used in 230,000 Bolt scooters would be very skilfully transformed to create these lightweight, durable and shiny pieces of art. Aluminium is infinitely recyclable, and this has instigated many big players to transform their base raw material into the same.

The designer has to remove the green paint from Bolt scooter bodies before beginning his fundamental activity of reshaping the metal. Tanel, to lend a personal touch, then goes on to anodize and paint the non-ferrous scrap metal himself, certainly providing a special glow suitable for jewellery making.

The Bolt jewellery collection consists of selected items that have been furbished with a reflective coating for night visibility. This feature would help users stay under the radar even during the darkest hours of the night.

The company's partnership with Tanel Veenre is proving to be fruitful on a global scale because of the artist's international portfolio. Veenre has been anointed with prestigious awards at the London Fashion Week and is also the proud winner of various international and local design contests like the Estonian Cultural Awards. He has showcased his eccentric style in more than 300 solo and group exhibitions worldwide. 

Designer Tanel Veenre quoted: "Scooters are becoming increasingly popular across Europe, and as newer generations are created, older models become outdated. These old models are always recycled, but it was great to use the quality materials that make up a Bolt scooter for this unique project. It was something completely out of the ordinary for me, and I learned so much about working with aluminium – something I'd never done – and worked with geometric forms, which are unusual for me." 

This is not the end for Bolt jewellery since the company has decided to carry on with their collaborative jewellery-making journey, with the latest items being available at Tanel Veenre's website from October 27.

Kerttu Keermaa, Bolt's creative lead on the project, narrated: "The Hardwear collection is built on the same guiding principles as Bolt scooters: sustainability and safety. The upcycling process follows a zero-waste approach, with any leftover material undergoing our regular recycling process. We believe that road safety is a shared responsibility and wearing reflective items can make pedestrians and cyclists more visible at night."

Currently, Bolt runs operations in around 500 cities in 45 countries, including Europe and Africa. The European ride provider has mobility stations lending scooters in Dublin and Cork and electric bike hives in Kilkenny and Sligo.

Bolt successfully runs e-bikes and scooters in approximately 230 cities across 25 European countries. The company has become the largest scooter supplier in the continent, with around 230,000 scooters on the go.