Piles of compost bins waiting to be delivered in Denver

Mayor Mike Johnston and Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI) announced updates to the city’s composting and recycling programs.

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

Over the past few months, the compost program was rolled out in Park Hill, Central Park and parts of East Colfax. In December, it will be expanded to complete the citywide plan. Residents 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.

And adjustments are coming to the recycling 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 every four weeks to every nine weeks.

“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.