Bike-powered hauling in Philadelphia by the Pedal Co-op

Bicycling, recycling, composting all come together at the Pedal Co-op in Philadelphia.

Using bikes, trailers and some muscle, these entrepreneurs have created a business that specializes in low-cost, bike-powered hauling.

Although they provide package and bakery deliveries and intercity moving, I guess you could say their bread-and-butter is composting and recycling.

They use materials picked up at about two dozen local client businesses and residences as the raw materials for composting, which they do at a compost facility in west Philadelphia. If you've ever done any composting in your back yard, you probably know it can be a dirty business but makes excellent soil.

They also pick up recycling at local businesses and haul it to the Blue Mountain Recycling Center.

A bike hauler can typically carry between 300 and 600 pounds of stuff a day.

This film from Video in My Back Yard explains all aspects of this small-scale start-up that's a couple of years old by now. Let's hope it stays strong and healthy.

Meanwhile, the Treehugger website is celebrating all types of cargo carriers on the most efficient form of transportation ever invented — the bicycle. Check out Bicycle Cargo: Chapter 4, Cargo bike businesses. 

Makes me wonder if people might stop waiting to get hired at jobs that don't exist and take matters onto their own bikes.