Ridwell, a subscription recycling service known for collecting hard-to-recycle materials, has announced a new approach to textile recycling. The company is now asking its customers to sort their textiles into two separate categories: re-wearable items and those meant for recycling. This change comes as Ridwell’s membership has grown to 120,000 across seven states and the volume of collected textiles has exceeded what downstream partners can process.
Since its founding in 2018, Ridwell has offered textile recycling under the name Threads. Textiles have consistently ranked among the most popular items collected, with the company handling up to 3 million pounds of clothing each year. However, Ridwell’s research revealed that household textile waste typically falls into two groups: clothing that can be worn again and lower-quality items that are only suitable for recycling.
As interest in sustainable fashion and textile waste management grows, and as some states introduce extended producer responsibility laws for textiles, Ridwell has focused on improving the sorting process. The company spent two years studying the domestic used textile market, consulting with industry experts, and manually sorting large quantities of donated clothing. Findings showed that thrift stores, a primary destination for re-wearable clothing, receive far more donations than they can sell, with many items being unsuitable for resale.
To address this, Ridwell has decided to separate textile collections into two distinct streams. Customers will now receive two bags: one for clothing in good enough condition to give to a friend, and another for items like socks with holes or torn linens. The re-wearable items will be sent to thrift stores through Cycla, a recycling management company, while lower-quality textiles will go to facilities such as Phoenix Fibers in Arizona and Leigh Fibers on the East Coast for recycling into products like insulation or punching bag stuffing.
Ridwell’s pilot programs indicated that customers are willing and able to sort their textiles when provided with clear instructions. This approach helps ensure that thrift stores receive only items they can actually sell, reducing the amount of unusable material that ends up in landfills.
The company is committed to transparency and has chosen not to increase subscription fees, absorbing the additional operational costs of the new sorting process. Ridwell’s goal is to strengthen the U.S. secondhand textile market and provide a reliable domestic end-of-life solution for textiles that cannot be reused. By prioritising U.S.-based processing and maintaining open communication with customers, Ridwell aims to build trust and address growing concerns about the fate of discarded clothing.
