Taylor Loewen of Ridwell: Giving new life to household trash

Companies that Care highlights business leaders who are making a difference in the world, like Taylor Loewen, Portland general manager of Ridwell, a sustainability startup that makes wasting less easy for its members. Ridwell picks up stuff from your front door and makes sure it gets sustainably reused or recycled. 

Taylor’s background is mostly in nonprofit and political campaigns and environmental organizations. She was drawn to Ridwell because it’s a small business trying to have a positive, tangible impact in their local community. Their ties to nonprofits made it an ideal fit for Taylor as a career choice.

Ridwell hired her to launch their Portland headquarters from scratch. They started in November 2020 with 223 members. Now, 10 months later, that number has ballooned to 16,000 members. The Seattle area has  25,000 members, and they’ve just expanded to Denver. They have plans to continue to expand to other major cities. Taylor began driving around delivering bins and picking up trash, and now she’s managing a team of 30 employees less than a year later!

How does Ridwell work? As a reuse and recycling service, Ridwell offers members a solution to keeping household trash out of the local landfill to help fight climate change. They work with a variety of companies and nonprofits to give new life to household trash.

Members pay a monthly fee to receive a Ridwell metal bin with five canvas bags, with pickups every two weeks. The four core categories are lightbulbs, batteries, plastic film (including Amazon plastic mailers, Ziploc bags, etc.), and threads (rags or clothing). The plastic is turned into things like composite for decks, tracks, benches, or playground equipment, and the threads are either donated or turned into cleaning rags.

The fifth rotating feature category collects items like school supplies, eyeglasses, pet accessories, purses, wine corks, jewelry, and Halloween candy and donates them to nonprofits.

They also offer add-ons for an additional fee, such as clamshell plastic, fluorescent lights, and Styrofoam.

Ridwell is committed to serious, transparent vetting, making sure that everything stays domestic. They communicate regularly with their members to share how much is being recycled and where it goes.

Taylor loves the process of working with partners to find a place for new items to recycle…in addition to working with nonprofits to benefit the larger community. 

Would you like to try a free month of Ridwell? Contact me at [e-mail] if you are interested! Curious to see if Ridwell is in your city? Check it out here.

Next week, I interview Daniel Sartin on the Finding Fertile Ground podcast. Daniel was born into foster care and has experienced trauma, addiction, suicidal ideation, and abuse in his 24 short years on earth. In spite of that, he's facing life sober, self-aware, and self-confident, determined to do whatever he can to help people facing houselessness and despair.

The Companies That Care podcast is brought to you by Fertile Ground Communications. If you like what you hear or read, wander through my website to find out more about my work.

Can you use some help with your writing, editing, communications, or marketing? Contact me for a free 30-minute consultation.

Fertile Ground Communications LLC is a certified women-owned business enterprise, disadvantaged business enterprise, and emerging small business.