A new sustainability service has expanded into Longmont, making it easier for residents to reuse and recycle items that aren’t part of typical curbside recycling programs.
Ridwell collects hard-to-recycle items like Styrofoam, thin plastic film, batteries, lightbulbs and clothing from member’s doorsteps. The new service launched in Longmont this week and will offer biweekly home pickups at select zip codes — 80501,80503 and 80504 — with expansion possible as citywide interest builds.
CEO and co-found Ryan Metzger explained that the Denver metro was the third market his company entered. The service has expanded over the past two years to surrounding areas.
“We always start pretty small in the neighborhoods that have the most interest,” he said. “You don’t want to be wasting mileage or anything like that. We wanted to do it in an efficient way.”
Longmont was one area showing a lot of interest, so Metzger’s company said that if 600 people joined a waiting list for the service they would expand here — and that’s what Longmont did. Metzger said the first pickup was Thursday, with well over 100 people signed up and expectation for further growth in Longmont.
Ridwell started as a project between Metzger and his six-year-old son in 2018 to find a way to recycle the things they didn’t want ending up in a landfill. They offered to recycle those materials for neighbors as well, and the project has grown into this business.
He explained that Ridwell targets things that curbside recycling programs don’t, including reusable items as well. Members get cloth reusable bags that they presort for collections from their doorstep.
The Ridwell website shows what percentage of materials are sent to recycling partners versus what was contaminated in each market. For the Denver area, 100% of batteries, textiles and light bulbs are recycled, along with 91.4% of plastic film and 86.3% of Styrofoam.
“Transparency is really critical,” Metzger said. “We hope that others actually see this and say, gosh, if we were all transparent, then people would have a lot more trust, there’d be better quality material and we could have a better system that would preserve resources for generations to come.”
The company also has a rotating “featured” category that helps local nonprofits in need of specific items. In the next few months, Ridwell will be collecting books for Dream Books Co., denim jeans for Clothes to Kids of Denver and Goodwill of Colorado and nonperishable food for We Don’t Waste.
Metzger said the company would love to hear from the Longmont community about partners they could work with. In the past, the company has gathered pet food, leftover Halloween candy, materials for artists to upcycle and even hard six-pack holders for local breweries.
“It’s been an amazing welcome to the community, and we’re thrilled to be serving it,” he said. “... We’re always looking for ways to blend into the fabric of the community.”
Memberships range from $12-$16 a month, with more information available at Ridwell.com.
