Denver, CO Continues its Expansion of Citywide Compost Service

SEATTLE (Waste Advantage): Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure is encouraging approximately 13,400 households in Park Hill, Central Park, and parts of East Colfax to look for a letter in the mail, letting them know compost collection service is starting soon in their neighborhoods and requesting they let DOTI know what size compost cart they’d like to receive. The neighborhoods make up Denver’s Solid Waste Collection (SWC) District 3 – an area with approximately 5,300 compost customers currently. Per instructions they’ll receive in the mail, residents will have until October 27 to choose their cart size to be part of an initial round of cart deliveries. DOTI will deliver carts to these customers starting in November along with a small kitchen pail and compost how-to guide. Collection starts the week after a customer’s cart arrives. Once service begins in SWC Collection District 3, residents of the district can request service at any time. Solid Waste will deliver carts in batches as requests are received after the initial delivery batch.

DOTI completed rollouts of compost collection service to residents in SWC Districts 4, 5 and 8 earlier this year, and SWC District 2 last year, and followed up with auditing and educating customers – a process that involves checking carts for contamination and tagging those carts to let people know what they put in their carts that shouldn’t be in there. Contaminated loads of compost can be turned away by the city’s compost processor.

DOTI is rolling out weekly compost service district by district, focusing on helping customers understand what items to place in their newly delivered green carts.  The department prioritized neighborhoods with lower diversion rates in its initial rollout and is developing a rollout schedule for the remaining districts in 2025. Residents will continue to receive a credit on their invoice until compost service starts in their neighborhood.

In January 2023, Denver moved to a volume-based pricing model for trash collection service to curb the amount of waste the city sends to the landfill. Residents pay for what they throw based on their trash cart size, with weekly recycling and composting included at no additional cost. With this latest rollout, about 62% of the city’s customers will have access to compost collection service.

Courtesy: www.wasteadvantage.com