Ridwell Reviews

Review update: this app failed to pick up twice in a row now, which is a month. I basically paid my monthly fee for them to do absolutely nothing. This most recent failure, they sent me a text that they picked up when they actually didn’t. Did they think I wouldn’t notice that they lied? lol. I responded to their text saying there was no pickup and asked them to clarify their text. No response. I kept waiting and no one ever came to pick up. I sent an email and am pending a response. If I don’t receive a reasonable explanation for this absolutely terrible and unreliable service, I’m cancelling cause why would I keep paying them for a service that they are not providing? Huge disappointment in this app and how they have treated me.

I’ve had the service for over a month now and no one has come to pick up my recycle. First month it was because they didn’t have a driver to do it and second month the person actually said they couldn’t find my recycle. They found my house to put the bin out but somehow they missed the large Orange bag on my front steps full of styrofoam. So I’ve missed out in two more opportunities to fill that orange bag with styrofoam. And my favorite is that they don’t answer your texts. I’ve emailed and texted and no one responds. I feel so duped by this company and I want my money back AFTER you pick up my recycling!

this app is a great concept but the material streams are obscure and niche. For 16+ dollars a month, it is too expensive to use. It is not 16 dollars a month. That’s just false advertising. If you want to recycle anything that is more commonly used, there are extra fees. 16 dollars a month for all those empty prescription bottles and light bulbs that I collect every month? That wouldn’t even make sense on an annual basis. Why would I pay 192 dollars for the year for like maybe 10 lightbulbs, 12 batteries, and 5 prescription bottles. That’s ridiculously overpriced for uncommon items. Paying extra for clamshells and styrofoam just makes it even more of a ripoff.

They really need to have a way for drivers to contact us if they get lost. Despite a large box and pick up for the last six months, whoever was supposed to pick up, decided that they would put in that there was no box. Either they went to the wrong address or because of the weather and a large amount of pick ups, they just simply decided not to pick it up. I am overflowing and if they charge me extra because they missed the pick up that’s on them. I am not going to pay because they made a mistake!

so I also sent an email and they made or arranged for a pick up later in the week. I had to check myself, but unlike usual pick up there is no notification if they did or didn’t pick it up. Hopefully this is just a one time occurrence.

I have been using this app for over a year. The people they have to pickup your recycling are literally HORRIBLE. They’re not friendly, they slam and swear, I have cameras. One guy pulled up, looked around and took off.. he didn’t even pickup the recycling. The drivers must not get the pickup orders because they miss bags that are listed as add-ons sitting right next to all of the other pickup items! I’m on the fence about canceling simply because their staff is incompetent.

I have only used this app about 3 months and so far they have not picked up as scheduled 2 times. So here I sit with all this stuff and the reply is “so sorry, unhappily no one can pick up Until Your next scheduled day”, which is 2 weeks away. I was offered a $4 credit as I will have “excess” in my next pick up. I asked for a credit equal to 1/2 my monthly fee as they did not pick up 1/2 of my stuff. So what is the problem? I have no answers but am quite unhappy with the service.
UPDATE: I canceled my account with this app, but did receive a message that a supervisor had been notified of my complaint. I wrote back that I would reinstate my account if someone came to pick up my stuff. That supervisor personally came to my home and retrieved the items that were missed earlier that day. I was told the driver was elderly and sometimes got confused with addresses. I did reactivate my account, I have empathy for the driver, however the issue has to be fixed going forward as this is a paid for service and I expect service to be performed. I also noted that one more miss will result in permanent cancelation if my account. But the supervisor took control and performed above expectation.

I love the idea and have been a customer for about a year now. Recycling and reusing items is important to me and I love that there’s a company out there trying to get it done!
Just a few issues with the execution though. A few times I have had my pick ups missed or partially missed (yes, they took some of my bags and forgot to take others), no replacement bags left, charged for a month when my membership was paused while I was away, and then today they actually messaged me about my items being wet when they picked them up!!!! What!!!??? First of all it was raining all day on my pick up day. Secondly, how do I leave items outside and accessible for pick up on a day when it is raining without them getting wet??? Thirdly, the bin for items is barely big enough to fit one bag let alone multiple bags of items so again, how am I supposed to ensure that they are dry if they don’t go in the bin??? If you want items dry and accessible then provide bigger bins that allow for this!!!
Love the concept, but the little oversights and bad customer service are making me reconsider.

I love recycling. this app is awesome for helping me keep things out of the landfill. What I dislike is nearly every pickup my driver(s) charge me extra when they shouldn’t. If I use Ridwell and identify what I’ve got setting out, Ridwell tells me how much extra I’ll be charged. Usually it’s $2 for an extra bag of plastic film. However EVERY dang time the driver also charges me $2 for my FREE featured item. I then have to reach out to this app to be credited. (Which they always do, but if I don’t micromanage the driver, I could potentially be being overcharged by $40-$50 per year.)

I’m moving out of the area but wanted to leave a review. This is a great opportunity to reduce your impact in our modern world. Straight forward and easy to participate. It’s important to use Ridwell , so you get info on your pickups. Only suggestion would be share categories much more in advance. Many of the special category items are things you’d never realize you should keep for recycling, so made it impossible to utilize that category. For example, a category for medication bottles and caps. I never hold on to them because you can’t recycle through regular waste management, but by the time I saw it was a pickup option, I could have had a whole years worth to recycle.

Could you include an advanced scheduling feature that allows for futher out scheduling. I was out of town the week of my pickup and I wanted to coordinate a before I left. There was no option to do so on the mobile website. Would be great to see as an option in the near future.

We really like having the ability to recycle so many things thru this app that you would usually just throw away. It’s helps me declutter and not feel bad about getting rid of things. So many things can be recycled, it’s amazing!

We are very grateful you are there to help us to fulfill our responsibility for the bits and pieces of wasteful packaging we end up with, even though we try to practice sustainable purchasing.
The onus of responsibility, for all the unnecessary waste, truly is the corporate manufactures and their care-thee-not attitude and the Plastics and Packaging lobbyists.
And thank you for sharing the stories about the differences made by our
care-we-must community.
Peace, Denise S.

I love this app’s service and their mission to reduce waste and improve reuse and recycling of products. We now pay less for garbage as we only need a small bin, offsetting the cost of membership. I love the new “swap” option for special items. My only critique is that you “opt in” for pick up each week rather than “opt out” if you don’t want it. Occasionally I forget to go to Ridwell and opt in, then I miss the service I’ve paid to receive and have to wait another two weeks for the next pick-up. Otherwise, I think this is a great service and I’ve had excellent experiences with their customer support team.

I’ve been using this app for less than a year, but have had a good experience. Always on time, clear instructions on each pickup, and new featured pickups of hard to recycle items each time. They are efficient as you must opted in each time, the recycled items are put to good use, like making Trex building material from the plastic or pouches from the blue jeans.

After seeing the documentary “Plastic Ocean” it needs to be all hands on deck to minimize our negative impact on the planet - if we have any care for succeeding generations not to mention countless species. Once the habit gets established it is pretty easy to collect old batteries, plastic tops and bags, unneeded textiles, and many others for pick up every other week or as needed rather than adding to the waste stream. An organization well worth supporting!

I’ve only had one pick up from this app but I feel great about it! In 2 weeks I was able to save 6 pounds of recyclables on the Plastics program. The City of Olympia has such minimal recycling and I hated throwing out all the plastic #1 PET/PETE clam shells. We now have the smallest garbage can and feel better about recycling the plastics. Yay for this app!

I try to be thoughtful in decreasing the use of plastic, but it is so so hard. It seems like everything has some form plastic attached to it. I am trying so hard to cut back & paying more for items that have used recycled plastic.
Thank you for doing the hard work of helping me to make this planet of ours survive.

I’m originally from a smaller town in Alabama and now live in Portland, Oregon. There were absolutely zero recycling services where I lived—including very basic ones typically provided by a city. There weren’t any third party companies or organizations that I could pay to come and pick up our recycling. So, I’m simply amazed by this app and the impact that it’s having on our community and planet! I get so excited to fill up my bags and save waste from getting into our landfills. It’s reasonably priced and has EXCELLENT customer service. I had a question about my first box, and they answered my text within minutes. I highly recommend this service to everyone!

We are loving it! I am recycling batteries and lightbulbs and tons of plastic bags. We are donating clothes. The kids are helping and learning about all the many things that can be recycled and donated. And the pickup is twice a month! So convenient! I’m so grateful for this service!

After a friend referred me to this app I decided to purchase a subscription after learning about all the things I can safely and responsibly recycle. Plus I’m learning about how items are recycled and this app’s partners who are taking in the recycled products. Plus , it’s really cool to see how many things I can now actually recycle! I believe the service is easy to use and their communication is very good. I highly recommend purchasing a subscription if you want to take your recycling to the next level!

this app is fantastic. They do right by the planet and also make cleaning out clutter from your own home seem accessible. I know I need to go through my close to clean it but that seems too overwhelming. But going through just to find the box of old electronics seems much more doable, and with this app doing the pickup with its themed categories, it’s much easier to actually get the items out the door and out of the landfill as well. I cannot recommend them enough!

I am so excited to be part of this app. This is a game changer for me. I’m a pretty good recycler, but all the things that we can’t recycle have always bothered me. Now I have an opportunity to save, recycle and know that they are going somewhere where they could be reused. Thank you very much. Firmly believe that we are the Earth, and that this app is doing their little part so I can do my little part.

this app is a fantastic way to more responsibly dispose of your waste. They’ve got a great model and high transparency about where your stuff ends up. Ridwell is easy to use and well organized. Their help/support is excellent whether you contact them through Ridwell , website, email, or phone. All around highly recommend!

So excited to have an app now for this app! Love seeing how many pounds of trash I’ve kept out of landfills, reference what is included in core categories and what featured categories are coming up so I can plan - ALL IN ONE PLACE! Thanks this app for making it even easier to take care of our planet :)

We thought we were doing pretty well with recycling paper, bottles and cans, etc. Nut then, we saw how much of our expendable supplies are wrapped in thin plastic and the enormous amount we are giving to this app! Thanks for giving those a good place to go!

Just had my 4th this app pick-up. Special pick up category was personal devices. we had the chance to recycle a large bag of items which had been cluttering up shelves, drawers, and cabinets. Great to know that you’ll either be put to good use or recycle properly!

I am indebted to this app for finding ways to keep products out of the landfills. This past week in particular was an eye-opener. When they first announced they would be collecting multi layer plastics, I started collecting…I was overwhelmed by the amount of multilayer plastics that come into this residence. When you consider that these would go into the garbage otherwise…and then a landfill…it seems like we as caretakers of the earth should be demanding a change in how these products are packaged.

I am glad there is Ridwell so I can get pertinent information quickly, everything at my fingertips. We’ll done this app!!

This makes managing my pick-ups so much easier and functionality is excellent!

I am grateful that this app now has an app! It makes pickups even easier and the whole process pretty seamless. Thanks this app team!

So excited for this app to be in the Bay Area now <3!

this app is an incredible service!!!

I’m obsessed with this app.. it’s truly almost like a game to me. I find it a fun activity :). I’m not sure I could think of an easier, more convenient way to go green. We hear so much about how our things don’t really get recycled, so much ends up in the landfill anyway, and/or are given a long list of items that are “hard to recycle”. this app takes that challenge on while you reduce your footprint on this earth, and they are transparent so when critics come at ya, you can say “actually….”. Can’t say enough! And if affordability is a concern, I recommend looking into their 6 month free trial membership. “Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Rihanna.” -Broad City

As my partner and I have lived in Seattle over the last several years , we loved having this app as a service but always wished for an easier mobile option to schedule pickups. The this app app allows us to easily see upcoming pickups and schedule much much easier than ever before, eliminating the need to check emails or texts. We now always know what pickup categories are coming up, what we need to set out for the week, and even get helpful info about how items are processed after pickup. We love this app and can’t wait to see more features added to Ridwell !

A friend told me about your service and I’m all in! I have had things like pill bottles and batteries and other effluvia gathering in my house that I was determined not to put in the landfill to decompose over the next millennium. Your service lets me feel that I am doing my part to protect the earth for current and future generations. No more just being a “consumer” (why do we let ourselves be termed that!?!)…I want to be an American who is a part of the world citizenry concerned with taking care of the planet.

I want to thank this app as a company that was created to recycle those items that normally are not recycled. This great service is complimented with incredible customer service as well. It is an all-out outstanding company. It is with great sadness that I have to cancel my service because the apartment building I’m moving to won’t allow it. I will sign up again in a heartbeat if anything changes. Apartment buildings need to figure it out!

I love how the upcoming featured categories are all listed. Ridwell is easy to navigate, and makes opting in and out of pickups really simple. Thank you!

this app is such an amazing service!!! It doesn’t break the bank and you really make a difference in reducing your waste that goes to the landfill. I love the rotating “Featured Item” and how they partner with your local charities/organizations to help those in need or repurpose/upcycle items. You’ll feel great knowing you’ve made a positive impact on the environment and helped your community. Bravo this app for all you do!

this app helps remind me to review items that we don't use or don't need anymore -- there are SO many times I have saved something hoping to find another use for it - then it just takes up space! this app has helped us reduce our waste that goes to landfills AND help local businesses in reusing materials!!! SO awesome! I hoghly recommend this app!

I am very grateful for what you are doing to keep stuff out of the landfill . You were also helpful to me in getting rid of some things that I no longer needed. I don’t have anything for the coming 3-4 featured categories so will take a break from pick-ups and perhaps start again at a later date if that’s ok. Constance

At first, I didn't want another app, but now I find that the this app app is a very great way to keep track of my pick ups. I wanted to make sure that I added everything I wanted to be picked up in time for their arrival to take my stuff today. And it worked! Everything was very clear.

This service is worthy for those of us concerned about excessive waste in our country. You don’t have to participate in this service for a long to figure out how much waste is out there and being brought into our homes, as well. Thank you this app!

I’m a long tome this app customer and opt into pickups from e-mail…. But sometimes I don’t know what the next featured category is, or even when the next pickup us . Love that Ridwell sends push notifications to opt in and always tells me what’s coming next. One less thing to worry about!

After many months of seeing those this app boxes on neighbors porches, we dove in and have loved it. Scheduling pickups through Ridwell is very easy and I love the bags they give for each category and that the bags are swapped out at every pickup so they’re always clean and dry.

We appreciate all your efforts responsibly recycle cell phone & old electronic devices.
And zip lock bags, shoes that were not in good enough condition to donate, batteries & light bulbs. 💯great job on all the information, I special bags & metal container for the porch. I even got a nice message from their support. Thanks for expanding to Snohomish!!

This is one of the nicest apps for a subscription service I’ve used! It works as expected, the notifications are actually helpful and not spammy, and Ridwell is chock full of useful info without kicking you out to the web site. Well done!

An easy way to do your part to help reduce waste. I love the categories they offer, but just wish there were consistent offerings of Multilayer plastic bags. It’s motivating and I was able to reduce my garbage pickup to monthly because there’s basically nothing in it!

I did a bit of research and found out a lot they claim they are recycling goes right to the LANDFILL. So you're NOT "helping the environment" by using them. You're helping them get rich!!! DONATE clothing you don't want that is still usable. RECYCLE plastic bags by taking them with you to your grocery store. Most stores have bins. RECYCLE plastic, metal, glass, paper with whoever in your city supplies the bins and picks them up weekly or every other week.