PK - 12 schools in any Ridwell Pickups service area are welcome and encouraged to participate. Schools need to be in a service area to enable pickup of the plastic film on our van route. Still not sure if your school is eligible? Check out the drive registration form which shows a list of eligible schools. Not in our service area and interested in bringing a Ridwell program to your school? Let us know.

Anybody with a connection to a PK-12 school can lead a drive! You don't need to be a Ridwell member. You may be a parent, staff member, or simply someone with ties to a local school. Just be sure you’re connected in a way that allows you to get school approval and share information with families. Use this email template to get any needed approval from the school.

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 a year of plastic film pickups for your school. You’ll also have a dedicated resource from Ridwell available to answer questions along the way.

You’ll serve as the liaison between Ridwell and your school. Before registering, be sure to get any needed approval from your school—this email template will help. You’ll be in charge of getting the word out about this drive and sharing your school’s unique new member sign-up link 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.

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. Templates will be provided once the program kicks off in late February. You know your community best and likely have other ideas as well!

We’ll pick up 20 or fewer large trash bags full of plastic film per trip. If your school collects more, we’ll schedule a second pickup.

While we can’t schedule pickups at a specific time, we aim to pick up at the school between 9:00am and 1:00pm to avoid the busiest times of day.

We’ll create a signup webpage for your school where you’ll be able to see the number of new members in your school community joining Ridwell, through both our Pickups and Mail-in services. We’ll use the page to track every new member who joins until May 22, 2026.

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 the 2026-27 school year.

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 nationwide.

Ongoing plastic film pickups are designed to help keep plastic film generated on your school campus out of landfills. We’ll provide 1 labelled cardboard collection box, along with a poster of what materials are accepted.

We’ll collect up to 2 large trash bags of plastic film every 2 weeks on the day when our vans are in your school’s area. Just like the drive, we’ll aim to arrive at your school sometime between 9 am and 1 pm.

If your school is closed on a scheduled pickup day, we will come back 2 weeks later and collect up to 4 large trash bags.

Both the drive and ongoing school pickups are for plastic film only because sticking with one material limits contamination, making sure that your school’s plastic is actually recycled.

We’re gathering interest for a new program that would use the Ridwell Mail-in system to host drives across the country. If you’d like to stay informed, let us know.

We've expanded this program to include any PK-12 school in our service areas (previously just elementary schools). Plus, new members who join through either Ridwell Pickup or Ridwell Mail-In now count toward the school's goal of 10 new members.

We've been experimenting with offering service to schools on a limited basis. 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.

That's great—we’re big fans of Trex! Ridwell is a Trex partner, so the plastic film you collect for the drive can be counted towards your Trex total. Just record your collection as you typically do in the Trex portal.