Can consumers recycle their way out of the plastic pollution crisis, or to meet climate goals, must they simply use less plastic in the first place?
That question was at the center of a lively discussion at the Newton Free Library on Monday, July 13. Seattle-based recycling company Ridwell introduced its subscription recycling service to local residents and drew criticism from environmental advocates who argued that companies addressing hard-to-recycle plastics create a false sense of environmental progress.
The event attracted a nearly full auditorium of residents eager to learn about Ridwell’s mail-back recycling program, which accepts materials that municipal curbside recycling programs typically cannot process. These include plastic film, multilayer packaging, prescription pill bottles, bottle caps, and other difficult-to-recycle plastics. Ridwell’s mail-back service starts at $30 for a starter kit, which includes two postage-prepaid collection bags to be mailed to Ridwell. Replacement bags cost $9 to $12 each, depending on the material to be recycled. The company says it hopes eventually to expand to curbside pickup in Greater Boston if membership continues to grow. The cost for pickup service is currently $20 per month where it is offered.
The discussion reflected a much broader national debate over plastic waste. As subscription recycling services expand across the country, supporters argue they provide an alternative to sending difficult materials to landfills, while critics question whether those materials are truly recycled in meaningful ways or simply downcycled into lower-value products.
“We’re entirely complementary to municipal recycling programs,” Ridwell co-founder and CEO Ryan Metzger told Fig City News following the presentation. “Municipal programs are designed for materials that can all be mixed together in single-stream recycling. Ridwell focuses on the materials that don’t work in that system.”
Metzger founded Ridwell after becoming frustrated by the growing collection of difficult-to-dispose items piling up in his family’s Seattle basement. What began as weekend trips with his young son to recycle light bulbs and other specialty waste evolved into a neighborhood-wide collection effort before eventually becoming a company.
Today, Ridwell operates in 11 warehouse regions across the United States and Canada, works with approximately 350 recycling and reuse partners, and says it has diverted nearly 45 million pounds of material from landfills.
Ridwell expanding into Boston
Boston is one of Ridwell’s newest expansion markets.
According to Metzger, approximately 2,300 households across Greater Boston currently use Ridwell’s services, including roughly 100 in Newton. The company hopes to eventually reach 3,000 local members, enough to support its original curbside pickup model rather than its current mail-back program.
Metzger acknowledged that recycling alone cannot solve plastic pollution.
“We also believe people should reduce plastic use whenever possible,” he said. “At the same time, we recognize that, in today’s world, some plastic use is inevitable. We want to provide responsible options for materials people already have.”
Ridwell says approximately 97 percent of the materials it collects are ultimately recycled or reused. Metzger said that figure comes from audits performed at the company’s warehouses, where staff inspect incoming materials before sending them to specialized partners for recycling and reuse.
Transparency, he said, is one of Ridwell’s defining features.
“We show people where their materials go,” Metzger said. “If someone would rather send those materials to vetted partners in the U.S. or Canada instead of a landfill, we think that’s a valuable service.”
Not everyone agrees.
The opposing view
Environmental advocacy organization Beyond Plastics argues that companies like Ridwell encourage consumers to believe that plastic waste can be responsibly managed through recycling when the real solution is producing and consuming less plastic in the first place.
“There is no way to effectively recycle plastic films, wrappers, chip bags, polystyrene clamshells and the whole host of plastics that Ridwell collects,” said Eileen Ryan, volunteer leader of Beyond Plastics Greater Boston. “It’s too expensive and too toxic. Telling people they can pay to have this plastic recycled is greenwashing.”
Ryan argues that many plastics marketed as recyclable are instead “downcycled” into products such as composite lumber or construction materials, delaying rather than preventing their eventual disposal while continuing demand for plastic production.
She believes that policy changes – including stronger laws for producer responsibility, statewide bans on certain single-use plastics, and greater investment in refill systems – would have a greater environmental impact than expanding specialty recycling programs.
Newton resident Ellie Goldberg, who has written frequently about environmental issues, echoed those concerns.
“Ridwell is just another example of exploiting the good intentions of well-meaning people,” Goldberg said, arguing that the company’s business model distracts consumers from addressing what she views as the root cause of the plastic pollution crisis: continued plastic production.
Those criticisms reflect a broader conversation occurring nationwide.
A broader conversation
The New York Times recently examined the growing industry of paid recycling services, noting that while companies such as Ridwell emphasize transparency and specialized recycling partnerships, environmental advocates continue to question whether difficult plastics are being recycled in ways that meaningfully reduce pollution or whether many materials are ultimately downcycled into products such as construction materials.
Yet some local sustainability advocates see more nuance than either side often presents.
Shara Ertel, owner of Newton’s Fulfilled Goods, a low-waste refill store, attended Ridwell’s presentation and said she believes the company’s founders genuinely want to reduce waste.
“I believe Ryan’s intentions came from the right place,” Ertel said. “I do believe they’re trying to find something to do with the plastic.”
Still, she believes the conversation about sustainability should begin much earlier than recycling.
“If you don’t generate the waste, you don’t have to worry about what to do with it,” she said.
“Everything goes somewhere,” she said. “There is no ‘away.'”
At the same time, she understands why consumers search for alternatives once difficult-to-recycle plastics have already entered their homes.
“I think for a consumer, once you have it, the question becomes: Is it better to put it in the landfill or is it better to try to find another use for it?” she said. “That’s where it becomes a gray area.”
Ertel said her own business now offers several hard-to-recycle collection programs for materials including prescription pill bottles, bottle caps and plastic film. She said those services often serve as an opportunity to educate customers about reducing waste before it is created.
“The bigger thing is if you avoid it, then you don’t have it,” she said.
A Newton customer’s perspective
Newton resident Steve Gordon, who has subscribed to Ridwell since last September, said convenience initially attracted him to the service.
“I found that about 90 percent of my waste was multilayer plastic that couldn’t be recycled through Newton’s services,” Gordon said. “It really bothered me that I had to throw all of that away.”
Since joining Ridwell, Gordon said some weeks his household produces almost no trash.
“I rinse out the bags, put them in the Ridwell bag, send it in, and they send me a new one,” he said. “The cost is pretty reasonable.”
When asked about criticism from environmental groups, Gordon said Ridwell’s transparency gives him confidence.
“They tell me where it’s going and what it’s going to become,” he said. “I suppose someone could say that’s not true, but that would be an awful lot of effort just to pretend they’re doing the right thing.”
Ultimately, despite their disagreements, both Ridwell and its critics share one important goal: reducing the amount of plastic entering landfills and the environment.
Where they differ is in how to get there.
Ridwell argues that providing responsible outlets for today’s difficult-to-recycle materials is an important step while society works toward reducing plastic consumption. Beyond Plastics contends that expanding recycling programs risks distracting consumers and policymakers from addressing plastic production itself.
For Newton residents, the debate may come down to a broader question that extends well beyond one company’s subscription service: Whether solving the plastic crisis begins with finding better ways to recycle – or with creating less plastic to begin with.
Other options for recycling beyond the bin
While Ridwell offers one option for hard-to-recycle materials, Newton residents have several other resources available to help reduce waste.
- Newton Resource Recovery Center accepts electronics, scrap metal, mattresses, textiles, books, rechargeable batteries, yard waste, propane tanks, medical sharps, and many other items that do not belong in curbside recycling.
- Newton’s Recycle Right Guide explains how to properly dispose of hundreds of household items and learn what belongs in your curbside recycling bin.
- Newton Swap Shop invites residents to donate or pick up gently used household items free of charge, helping extend the life of usable goods and keep them out of the waste stream.
- Fulfilled Goods is a refill shop that collects a variety of hard-to-recycle items, including plastic film, candy and snack wrappers, coffee bags and other multilayer plastic packaging, prescription pill bottles, bottle caps, can carriers, toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes, razors, crayons, pens, and markers. There is a $5 fee per dropped-off grocery bag, which can be applied toward an in-store purchase. The collection program is partially subsidized through a City of Newton and Village Bank Climate Action Microgrant.
- Retail plastic bag collection bins at participating grocery stores can accept plastic bags and plastic film that should not go in curbside recycling.