Create real recycling

I’ve been disappointed with the recycling services provided to residential customers by local waste haulers. Waste Management has done little to improve residential recycling. And even though they say the major obstacle to effective recycling is education they do little (nothing?) to “educate” us in best recycling practices. Nor have they increased the kinds of recyclables they accept. Subscribers who care know that they end up putting items that might be recycled into the trash and items that might not be recycled into the recycle bins.

A few years ago, a father and son in Portland faced this dilemma and, wanting to max out their recycling, started their own neighborhood service, collecting recyclables that were not on the pick-up list in their Portland neighborhood. This was successful and the local effort became a larger one and is now operating as Ridwell.com in Portland, Seattle and Everett, (and Denver) and very recently expanded to Bellingham and Ferndale. Ridwell would like to expand service to other areas, including to Skagit communities. They can do that as soon as enough Skagit households show an interest in subscribing by getting on their waiting list.

The Ridwell business model is to a) identify communities with interest in increasing recycling and reducing waste; b) (and this is the important difference) identify what are not being picked up by a local recycler; but which would be put to use by local or regional partners who have the facilities or processes to reuse, re-manufacture, or recycle those items – saving them from the landfill.

The targeted recyclables increase as they identify new regional processing partners. Currently on the pickup list are plastic film, textile scraps, batteries and reusable items such as, clothing, eyeglasses, crayons, books. From time to time, depending on local re-processors demand, they will include very hard-to-recycle items such as rigid clamshells and styrofoam, usually for an extra fee.

If interested, add your name to the Ridwell.com waiting list or email me at [email protected].

Bob Raymond

La Conner