Piles of compost bins waiting to be delivered in Denver

Mayor Mike Johnston and Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI) announced the next rollout of compost collection starting in 2025, completing the citywide plan.

Residents in the orange area of the map will receive a letter asking them to choose a size of compost cart. The deadline for residents in these areas is Jan.10, to opt-in for the service and receive a cart. The carts will be delivered in February and March.

Map showing the next rollout of compost collection services in Denver.

There will also be changes to other services which the City says helps support the citywide composting program.

Starting on January 6, 2025, DOTI will move to every-other-week recycling collection. DOTI offered weekly recycling in 2023 and 2024 and says there was not a significant increase in recyclables collected. According to a news release. DOTI found that the weekly service causes its trucks to circle the city twice as often, driving an additional 170,000 miles per year.

Another change in 2025, DOTI will move the large item pickup service from an every four-week to every nine-week collection.

“These adjustments in our collection schedules will allow us to improve customer service, creating greater reliability in our collection services and improving route completion rates for trash, compost and recycling,” said Amy Ford, Executive Director of DOTI. “In other words, we pick up your solid waste the day we tell you we are going to pick it up. Today we are at 90%, and we are striving to be at 95%.”

There won’t be any changes to city trash collection fees in 2025, which are tied to the size of resident’s trash carts.