So you've reached that stage of your cycling career – you've had your perhaps very elderly bike for long enough that it's time for an upgrade. But what to do with the original?

A Dutch friend of mine, with three bikes in his basement, told me that all true Dutch people own a similar number of the machines. But that doesn't always work in the UK. Without a basement to inhabit, my bike lives in a small, shared hallway with two others belonging to neighbours, as well as a pram, and a tricycle.

Much as I'd like a bike to lend to guests, or a super lightweight model for longer distances, multiple bikes is not an option for me. If I upgrade I'm going to need to find a new home for my trusty steed – and that's where bike recycling comes in.

As our interactive map shows, up and down the country there are scores of non-profit and voluntary groups which will take your old bike off your hands and find it a loving new home. It can be put to all manner of worthy uses, thus assuaging your guilt about the don't-tell-my-partner-how-much-this-really-cost upgrade.

These include Projects like OWL bikes in Cambridgeshire, which saves bikes from landfill and uses them as a basis for vocational training for adults with learning disabilities, then offering the refurbished cycles for sale.

There's also the Glasgow mental health-cum-bike recycling charity Commonwheel, which runs refurbishment workshops for people suffering from mental illnesses.

Then you have the Oxford Cycle Workshop, which was established in 2001 as a workers' cooperative, and has since saved more than 1,000 bikes from landfill, whilst offering workshop training for young people.

Meanwhile Re-Cycle has shipped almost 35,000 bikes to Africa since 1998. They are based in Colchester but have collection points at other locations.

The good folk of the Isle of Wight alone have collected 1,000 bikes on behalf of Re-Cycle – so many that the island's bus company had to step in and help out with collection and storage. Unwanted bikes can now be handed in to Newport bus station, although you'd best phone first to check. For contact details see our interactive map.

Do you know of any bike recycling projects that aren't listed on our map? If so please tell us and we'll try to add them.