PORTLAND, Ore. — A nonprofit that helps clean up Portland is facing a major setback after someone stole an electric bike and trailer used to pick up garbage.
Trash for Peace has a vision of a world without waste with a mission to empower communities in the Portland area. Co-founder Barbie Weber said the nonprofit accomplishes that mission by offering low barrier jobs to people experiencing homelessness.
"Our work works as well as it does because we are peers and know what it's like to be living outside," said Weber.
Early Friday morning, someone broke into the nonprofit's Southeast Portland warehouse and stole the e-bike and trailer along with four tablets and a filing cabinet.
It uses the e-bike to pick up trash around homeless camps and other parts of the city.
"The reason they use the e-bikes is that these places are hard to get to by vehicles, and we want to get as much trash out of those areas as we can," said Weber. "We pick 15,000 to 20,000 pounds of trash. We're hoping with these e-bikes, we're going to be able to pick up twice as much trash."
Weber said they'll have to put that goal on hold for now.
"We are trying to make the city a better place, and to have the instrument to make that happen stolen is really hard," said Weber.
Despite the setback, Weber said they plan to continue their mission to empower the community.
"We just want to keep going and found this to be really discouraging," said Weber
The group had recently purchased the e-bike, valued at about $ 3,000. Contact the Portland Police Bureau if you spot the e-bike or trailer.