Why the founder of Buy Nothing is a proud Ridwell member
Ryan, founder of Ridwell, and Liesl, founder of Buy Nothing
For Liesl Clark, a Ridwell member and founder of Buy Nothing, it started with a beach walk with her children on an unseasonably warm December day over 10 years ago. Liesl’s son had a splinter from walking barefoot, and while removing that splinter, Liesl noticed just how much plastic was all around them on the beach. Liesl spent the next few years learning about the scope of plastic pollution and what caused it. She cleaned up shorelines near and far, documenting all of the household plastic that she recovered. Everything she picked up, from buckets, to toothbrushes, to zip-top bags all pointed to the same conclusion: consumption was the root cause of this and any attempt to solve the problem needed to start there.
Determined to do something, Liesl looked to another part of the world for inspiration. Each summer, Liesl and her family traveled to the Nepal-Tibet border. There they saw generations who have survived with far less access to easy forms of consumption than the Western world. This was only possible through a thriving gift economy where people give and receive the items they need instead of buying new. Liesl and her friend Rebecca were determined to replicate these ideas at home by making it easier to use and repurpose their old things with others around them.
In July 2013, back home in Bainbridge Island, Liesl and Rebecca created a Facebook group where they hoped sharing would occur similar to what Liesl’s family witnessed in Nepal. This was the very first Buy Nothing group. By the end of 2013 there were 79 groups in 5 states and people were sharing everything one could imagine: bookshelves, baby joggers, house cleaning, bricks, laptops, bread makers, haircuts, and canoes. Today, there are over 6,500 Buy Nothing communities in 44 countries with over 6.5 million participants. Seeing the impact and all the good that came from Buy Nothing groups inspired many other social impact projects, including what would eventually become Ridwell!
Our CEO, Ryan, lived in an area of Seattle with an active Buy Nothing group and would gift items occasionally. He also had a basement room filled with stuff that he doubted anyone would want. Old electronics cables with unknown utility, bags of dead batteries, and blocks of Styrofoam all went to the same place where, in theory, Ryan and his wife would find time to take each to a specialized recycler.
One weekend in August of 2017, Ryan finally found time to take the old batteries to a recycling partner with his son Owen. Before they left they were inspired to post in their local Buy Nothing group offering to pick up their neighbors batteries, too. Their offer was met with overwhelming enthusiasm, other categories soon followed, and before too long Owen and Ryan had completed over 1,000 stops across over 25 categories. Thanks to the support and encouragement of Buy Nothing members, Ryan and Owens' father-son project eventually grew into Ridwell, which today serves over 65,000 households across 5 states, including Liesl Clark whose Buy Nothing Project started it all.
The Buy Nothing community was instrumental in helping Ryan and Owen grow their idea into Ridwell.
In thinking back on the interconnected histories of Buy Nothing and Ridwell, it’s remarkable how complementary they have been since the beginning. When we chatted with Liesl recently, she emphasized this. In her view, Ridwell and Buy Nothing are both different answers to the same problem: how to make our relationship to our belongings more seamless and less harmful to the planet. While Buy Nothing groups have surprised Liesl in the breadth of what gets gifted, plastics often go unclaimed. Someone needs to help figure out what to do with things like this downstream, which is where Ridwell comes in. In this way, Liesl views Buy Nothing and Ridwell as a pairing that’s greater than the sum of its parts. Buy Nothing addresses waste at the source by preventing overconsumption, and Ridwell addresses the waste caused by things you can’t avoid buying. Together, they keep way more things out of landfills and waterways than using either on its own. As Ridwell and Buy Nothing expand to more parts of the country and prepare to launch apps to help make wasting less easier, we are proud of our shared history and deeply grateful to everyone who has helped us get to this point. The future looks brighter, cleaner, and less wasteful thanks to all of you!