A Recycle From Home customer leaves bottles and cans in bar-coded bags for pickup and delivery to a local recycling center. (Courtesy Recycle From Home)
The City of Riverside has adopted a new recycling initiative, Recycle From Home (RFH), to increase the recycling of California Refund Value (CRV) containers like bottles and cans by allowing residents and businesses to recycle from their doorsteps and receive payment.
This program, supported by the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle), is designed to address the decline in state recycling rates, which have dropped significantly, with fewer than 59% of CRV containers currently being recycled. In addition to cans and bottles, RFH drivers also pick up select e-waste items such as TVs, laptops, computers, tablets, and old cell phones.
Recycle From Home was initially piloted in Irvine in 2021 and is expanding today to include Riverside in its service area. Operating like a food delivery or ridesharing app for recycling, RFH eliminates the need for customers to visit recycling centers. Instead, recyclables are collected in bar-coded bags and picked up directly from homes to be processed at a local recycling center where the materials are weighed and the redemption value calculated. Payments to the residents are then made promptly via PayPal, Venmo, or mailed checks.
“We’re excited to launch in Riverside because we believe it will become a model city for recycling,” says Derek Paulo, Riverside resident and Product Director for Recycle From Home, “People here care about our environment and genuinely want to do the right thing, so knowing that RFH’s CRV material stream is clean and nearly 100% of it goes back into the recycling loop will resonate with people here.”
Despite the common use of curbside recycling bins, approximately 30% of materials placed in blue bins end up in landfills or the ocean due to contamination and inefficiencies. RFH claims that 100% of collected materials are recycled, thus closing the recycling loop and returning the CRV deposits to the consumer.
The program also encourages community involvement by allowing participants to donate a portion of the redemption proceeds to local nonprofit organizations.
Since its inception, RFH has recycled over 500,000 pounds of materials and disbursed nearly half a million dollars to residents.
Residents interested in participating can sign up via the program’s website at recyclefromhome.com or mobile app and can schedule pickups at their convenience.
