Ridwell

Ridwell: at-home pickup of materials that standard recycling won't accept

Ridwell is a recycling and reuse service that removes from homes those items that municipal curbside programs don't accept. The company collects materials directly from members' homes and delivers them to pre-vetted local partners, so users can know the final destination of what they hand over.

What it collects and why the usual bin isn't enough

The list of accepted materials includes plastics that curbside collection doesn't process, such as plastic film and multi-layer plastic, as well as snack packages, wine corks, used clothes and shoes, batteries, and lightbulbs. The company explains that it doesn't collect any material until it has found a responsible partner and verified that it will give it a second life.

Two service options

Ridwell structures its offering around two complementary options:

• Pickups: bi-weekly service available across a growing network of US cities, with rates starting at $20 per month.
• Mail-in: nationwide service for hard-to-recycle plastics and other materials, with rates starting at $10 per bag.

Transparency about where materials go

The company states that it audits and tracks the materials it collects to ensure the integrity of its service, and that waste ends up exactly where it should. This tracking relies on a network of vetted partners that handle the recycling or reuse of each type of material.

Family origins and community growth

Ridwell began as a father-and-son project called Owen's List. The founder, Ryan, wanted to teach his children Owen, age 6, and Grant, age 2, the habit of reusing or recycling one item from the basement each weekend instead of throwing it away. When he found that many of those items—batteries, lightbulbs, old clothes, or Styrofoam—didn't fit into conventional programs, they started collecting them from their Seattle neighbors too, sharing stories and photos of where each item ended up. The project grew to more than 4,000 households in Seattle, at which point Ryan and Owen teamed up with Aliya, David, and Justin to launch Ridwell.

Today the company presents itself as a team of more than 250 people and a community of over 150,000 members, the Ridwellers, who sustain its activity. Its areas of work include drivers and the warehouse team, who move materials from homes to partners; the partnerships team, responsible for selecting and vetting those partners; and the member support team.

Stated commitments

The company lists three commitments: transparency, through auditing and tracking the materials collected; audacity to push the boundaries of the industry; and community, with the idea that members are the foundation of its activity. The company also serves businesses through Ridwell for Business and has a dedicated channel for press inquiries.