I am excited to let you know about a service called Ridwell (Seattle only for now but growing).

I've been a customer for two months now and have sent them quite a lot of items to recycle and donate.

Ridwell is a service that makes it easy for you to get rid of:

Batteries - includes alkaline, rechargeable, small electrics, lithium watch batteries
Light bulbs - LEDs, CFLs, Incandescent
Threads - clothes, shoes, towels, sheets, fabric scraps
Plastic film - Ziplocs, bubble wrap, air pillows, grocery bags, prime shippers, bread bags, newspaper bags, dry food bags, produce bags, dry cleaning bags, etc
Styrofoam
Rotating category - Car seats, latex paints, electronics, cords, wine corks, school supplies, legos, Halloween candy, etc

What I really appreciate is how they align the rotating categories to local causes.

Cost

I paid for a year = $120. You can also pay monthly and try it out for three months for $42.

How it works

Ridwell drops off a nice metal box to place in your house outside. They give you canvas bags that are labeled with each category.

Every two weeks, you will get an email (and SMS message) asking you if you have a pickup. You select the items you wish to be picked up, and they come by and take it. It's pretty simple.

If you sign up using my referral link, you will get a free bonus month.

Ridwell does a great job. If you are curious, you can read more about the company.