⁄Profile⁄ Fighting a Plastic Planet BY AMY MILSHTEIN PEOPLE WHO SUBSCRIBE to Ridwell love Ridwell. And really, what’s not to love? For a monthly fee, the startup whisks away hard-to-recycle items — things your regular garbage hauler can’t process in their single-stream recycling bins — right from your doorstep. Ridwell provides adorable, reusable drawstring bags for sorted trash and a branded bin — reminiscent of an old-timey milk box — that sits on your front porch and signals to neighbors that you are part of the solution. But are you? Since launching in 2018, Ridwell has diverted 20 million pounds of waste from landfills in the eight metro areas it serves, according to Taylor Loewen, the company’s West Coast regional director. This includes waste from Ridwell’s approximately 25,000 members in the Portland Metro area. However, we are a nation swimming in plastic waste, with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimating some 32.2 million metric tons now fill our landfills. No one expects a 200-employee, venture- capital-backed startup to solve problems created by generations of free-market, consumer capitalism. But for people who want to do a bit more, and have the budget to spare, Ridwell offers convenience and the warm feeling that comes from doing something, anything, to effect change. Subscribers simply schedule a twicemonthly pick-up through an app. Then one of Ridwell’s 45 local employees drives up in a Sprinter van and — just like that — plastic film, batteries, clamshell containers, and more disappear. These items don’t go to the local landfill. Instead Ridwell ships them to partners near and far to be reused, repurposed or recycled. Want to know where it all goes? Just check the company website’s regularly updated transparency page to see where the trash lands. There are even precise percentages (with decimal points!) to quantify JOAN McGUIRE Feeling guilty about existing in a world drowning in plastic? For around $18 a month, Ridwell absolves the shame of generating waste for a select few living in the Portland area. But can the startup really solve our plastic-waste problems? 22
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