You should suggest that employees and general public can purchase these items at a small cost per pound. Just a little more than the recycling yards. The city will make more money and bikes will NOT die!
There are a couple of places around here where I used to buy scrap steel at 15 cents a pound. I was able to get and use a lot of good stuff this way. including full cuts of sheet metal with slight rust on a corner...Every other week or so there would be a pile of bikes I could just dig through and pick apart.