Denver isn’t on track to meet its 2020 recycling and composting goal, but a lack of recycling isn’t the issue — it’s a lack of composting.
Charlotte Pitt, interim director of for Denver, said of what Denver residents discard could be composted, while only of what is in the waste treatment cycle is recyclable, making for a total of 75 percent of Colorado’s waste that could be recycled or composted.
This means even if Denver recycled everything it was possible to recycle, reaching its target 34 percent residential recycling and composting rate wouldn’t be possible without composting.
“So composting is really the direction that we need to go in and get more participation in,” Pitt said.
The 2020 goal was set in 2013 by the Denver Office of Sustainability. “Residential” is defined as multifamily with seven or fewer units as well as single-family homes, and there are about 179,000 such residences in Denver.
Pitt said part of why many people don’t compost in Denver may be because composting is a limited program that just began last year.
The program currently has the capacity to pick up from only 23,000 to 25,000 homes. In terms of the homes it actually picks up from, it recently surpassed the 20,000-home mark, but to meet the 34 percent recycling and composting rate, Pitt estimates it would need to pick up from between 50,000 and 60,000 homes, which would mean adding new collection routes and new pickup trucks.
The department called this issue out in its for managing solid waste in Denver, but at that time, the city was in a recession, and Pitt said funding and new services just weren’t on the table.
Pitt said other factors may be the , which is charged every three months. Recycling and regular trash collection, in contrast, come with no direct charges to residents.
As the 2020 deadline inches closer, Sonrisa Lucero, a sustainability strategist with the Office of Sustainability, said a next step will be creating a new recycling and composting goal.
The time frame to achieve the new goal is yet to be determined, but she said they’ll likely set new goal targets while still trying to align with other city initiatives.
The biggest thing people can do to help, Lucero said, is “create a culture of sustainability” in their homes, commutes and offices. This could mean anything from using public transportation to eliminating food waste.
Pitt said the 2010 Solid Waste Master Plan, which was created before the 2020 recycling and composting goal, is in the process of being updated.
She said some pieces of the master plan have been accomplished, such as opening the free (located at 7352 Cherry Creek South Drive), but there are some pieces that have not been completed, such as determining a location for a second recycling dropoff center.
Since the revision process has just begun, she couldn’t give any examples of upcoming revisions, but she said starting this fall, the Office of Sustainability will likely hold stakeholder meetings and involve communities and businesses in the process. From there, recommendations will be made.
