Ridwell: One Homeowner’s Solution for All Plastic Recycling

By Ellen Butler

I was at a local hardware store on a recent afternoon.  A customer purchased four items and picked them up to leave when the clerk offered him a plastic bag. The customer asked if it was free and the clerk said yes. I was puzzled. Weren’t these single-use plastic bags banned in California back in 2014?

Charles Moore, who discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the swirling soup of plastic pollution in the Pacific, lives right here in Long Beach. He sells organic vegetables from his garden every Sunday right out of his own front yard. His office for Algalita Marine Research and Education is located at the Alamitos Bay Marina and also houses BYO (Bring Your Own) Long Beach, a store where you can refill many household products. And yet here we are continuing to use plastic we’ve long known we shouldn’t.

I learned at the July BHCA meeting that the city of Long Beach is adding a green bin for yard and food waste to our trash collection system. But many of us are still overwhelmed by the complexity of the rules of the recycling system. I’m so happy to have attended a presentation at El Dorado Library where I learned of a company I am now using to help me handle all my plastic waste correctly.

It’s called Ridwell. Go to their website (ridwell.com). Check it out and see how it best suits your needs. For instance, do you eat chips? Do you receive padded bags from your online orders? Bubble wrap and air pillows? Frozen food bags?  None of these bags can be recycled in our purple bins but Ridwell will take them and recycle them correctly.  It’s easy. Just fill each Ridwell bag with their accepted list of plastics and drop it off at the post office. Ridwell will mail you new bags, as needed.

 I care deeply about our planet and am hopeful for a more sustainable future for all of us, especially our children. I’m grateful for companies like Ridwell who are doing their part to address this environmental challenge.