School Drive Resources
Everything you need to run your school’s plastic film drive
Timeline
November
Time for your drive! Get set up and collect plastic film. Make sure to register for your pickup to make sure our van stops by (we’ll remind you via email).
December
On your school’s drive webpage, track your progress toward the goals of signing up 10 & 20 new Ridwell members. December 15 is the final day!
Your school's drive webpage
We’ve sent you a link to a page just for your school community—check your email! Share the link to help folks learn more about the drive, see your progress toward earning ongoing plastic film pickups at school and a field trip, and learn more about how Ridwell helps families send less to landfills.
A peek at the page
People who visit your school’s page can register to learn more about Ridwell and even sign up to become a member. The page includes a counter that tracks your school’s progress toward pickups and a field trip. New members must be associated with your page to count towards your goals! So, they must either join Ridwell directly through the page or sign up for emails on the page, then join Ridwell through the special link we’ll send them.
What if Ridwell members visit the page?
Members who visit your page will see all the same information (including the counter), except the top of the page will show a custom share link to help spread the word.
Questions? Visit FAQ >
Plan your drive
What date(s) will you host your drive? Your school’s pickup date was emailed to you.
If you elected to receive a yard sign, where will you display it?
What container will you use to collect plastic film? Where will you put it? Do you want to set up more than one?
A successful drive starts with a little bit of planning. Here are the key things to think about:
Not sure where to start? Grab our planning guide Download here >
Advice and helpful tips from past drive leaders
Download here >
Promote your drive
Now you’re ready to promote! Where will you communicate about the drive? You know your school community best. To make it easy, grab templates and printouts from the section below.
Here are some tried and true ways to spread the word:
Flyers to send home
Plastic film info
Social media posts on the school’s channels
Blurbs in school newsletters
Email to school families and teachers
Morning or assembly announcement
Customize with your drive dates and your school’s unique URL!
Get the template >
You’ll need a free Canva account. Download instructions here.
Customize with your drive dates and your school’s unique URL!
Get the template >
You’ll need a free Canva account. Download instructions here.
One-page resource to help your community learn about plastic film.
Print or download >
Help your fellow students understand what goes in the plastic film collection.
Print or download >
Ready-made images to use on your school’s social channels. Download >
Need a caption? Use this
Email messages, a newsletter blurb, and more to copy and paste. See templates >
Need to create your own flyer? Grab the Ridwell logo here. Download >
Get set up for your drive
You will need:
A container to collect film. Clean trash cans generally work well.
Large plastic bags to put in the container. These can double as the bags you give to us. Any plastic bag you can tie closed works well. Large trash bags like what the school uses are a great option. Schools in the past have filled an average of 3-6 large bags (as you probably already know, you can pack a lot of film in a small space!).
Signage to print:
Sign for your container
Tape the sign to your collection container to differentiate it from a garbage can.
Plastic film what-we-take poster (11x17”)
Hang up near the container to help people double check what kind of plastic is included in the drive.
Educational resources
Everything you need to know about plastic film, Ridwell, and more
Where does plastic film go?
Read the blog post >
About Ridwell
How exactly does Ridwell work, and what do they pick up? Download >
Ridwell at home: Meet the founder! Watch the video >
Lesson plan
A lesson plan from a former elementary school teacher (free with code RIDWELL) Download >
Test your plastic IQ!
10 revealing questions
Take the quiz >
How Ridwell works Watch the video >
What is plastic film, anyway? Watch the video >
Program FAQ
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You’ll receive a special yard sign to display at your school (if you select this at registration), access to a digital resources kit, and a drive webpage made just for your school where your community can join Ridwell and you can track your progress towards earning plastic film pickups from Jan - Jun and a field trip for up to 50 attendees your school. You’ll also have a dedicated resource from Ridwell available to answer questions along the way.
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You’ll serve as the liaison between Ridwell and your school. Before registering, be sure to get any needed approval from your school. You’ll be in charge of getting the word out about this drive and sharing your school’s unique drive webpage with your school community. You’ll also be coordinating the collection, getting any needed supplies (i.e., bags or receptacles), and registering for pickup at the school.scription text goes here
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Communicating early and often about the program has been key to success for past participants. This might include parent/guardian emails, assembly announcements, flyers to send home social media posts, posters at drop-off/pick-up points, Facebook PTA groups, and school newsletters. You know your community best and likely have other ideas as well!
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Check your email! It's included in the kickoff email from October 1.
Share it as a link or QR code in all sorts of ways—for example, copy/paste into a flyer and include in emails to your community. -
We don't expect you to sort! Please do your best to explain what's included to minimize mix-ups. We'll sort out any rogue materials at our facility.
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In early October, we’ll create a drive webpage for your school where you’ll be able to see the number of new members in your school community joining Ridwell. We’ll use the page to track every new member who joins until December 15, 2024. You'll earn pickup at the school with 10 new members and a field trip with 20!
Note that new members must sign up through your page to be counted!
Schools in a Ridwell service area with 10 or more new members joining through your page will receive plastic film pickups at your school for January through June, 2025! If you earn ongoing pickups, we’ll provide collection receptacles and will pick up directly from your school.
Schools with 20 or more new members joining through your page will also be awarded a field trip for up to 50 attendees to visit your local Ridwell warehouse to see firsthand what it takes to keep 22+ million pounds of waste out of landfills.
The new members don’t need to attend or be directly connected to your school, so feel free to share this link with friends and family, wherever -
If you earn pickups for the rest of the school year, we’ll provide a collection receptacle, bag liners and a sign of what is accepted. This ongoing collection is meant to be for plastic film generated at school (i.e., not from families bringing it in). We’ll pick up directly from your school.
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Up to 50 attendees from your school will visit your local Ridwell warehouse for a tour.
See mountains of stuff that's been saved from the landfill and find out what will happen to it all
Learn more about why certain materials are difficult to recycle
Ask questions and meet members of the Ridwell team
Note that you'll need to provide transportation to your local Ridwell warehouse.
Warehouses are located in:
San Leandro, CA
Van Nuys, CA
Denver, CO
Atlanta, GA
St. Paul, MN
Portland, OR
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA -
If you participated in previous drives, you may remember that only Ridwell members could be leaders. Since then, we made operational improvements to enable pickups directly at the school rather than at a member's home, opening up the opportunity for more people to choose to be leaders.
Plus, we added the ability to earn a field trip for up to 50 attendees when 20 new Ridwell members are inspired to join through your school's drive webpage! This way, kids can see firsthand what happens to the mountains of materials our members keep out of the landfill. -
We're working on a way to offer regular pickups at schools in the future. If this is a service your school would highly value and could allocate budget towards, please fill out this form and we’ll add you to our waitlist.
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Multi-Layer Plastic is not part of this school drive. We've received feedback that these materials are more difficult to explain than Plastic Film, and there also are higher levels of contamination. If families would like to recycle these materials, this category is available on our home-based Plastic Plus and Unlimited plans. **Be sure to remind your community members to sign up via your school's drive webpage, so that those signups will be counted towards your school’s goal!
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Ridwell operates in 8 different metro areas across 7 states. You can see a list of neighborhoods and areas we currently service here! Feel free to share your school’s drive webpage with friends and family in any of the areas Ridwell offers service as they don’t need to attend or be directly connected to your school.
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We understand how this can happen and wish we can accommodate situations like this, but with a small team and hundreds of schools participating, we are only able to count new memberships that are tracked through your school's drive webpage.
Other questions? Email schools@Ridwell.com >