CLEVELAND — Thousands of electric scooters dumped on the streets of Cleveland and other cities are now getting back on the road, thanks to an Akron-based recycling company.

A pile of broken SPIN scooters have been sitting outside Summit e-Waste recycling solutions, but these wheels will soon be turning again. 

Owner Ben Baker said SPIN approached him about recycling around 8,000 scooters being stored in a Cleveland warehouse. Baker agreed and had only a week to get them from Cleveland to Akron.

Baker not only moved all of the scooters, but also decided to refurbish rather that to recycle them. Valentin Batut helped Baker make that happen.

"I’m just a nerd. I like messing around with things and then we can wake up the scooter. This is something that detects movement," he said.

Batut is replacing the circuit board and software system on each scooter one at a time to make sure they could safely get rolling again. 

For Baker, giving 8,000 scooters new life means helping the environment.

"It’s important to me. I have four children and I leave the world in a better place for them and I want to be a good example for them," he said. "I teach them that recycling is important and not producing a lot of waste so it’s important to me to do what I can do my part to leave a better environment." 

Baker said the scooters sell for $200 each, but he knows the challenge will be making sure they don't go to waste once they're back up and running. 

"A lot of college students using them to get around, a lot of retired couples who aren’t as mobile as they’d like to be so they’re able to take the scooters out, get out and explore some more safely," he said. 

Baker said he is also hoping to give back to his community.

"I’d like to donate them to people who need to be able to get to work, so if you don’t live on a bus route you need to get to work and you don’t have another way to work other than an expensive Uber ride, you can ride one of these scooters their and get people back on their feet maybe," he said.