By the end of 2017, the City of Denver will have completely phased out dumpsters in favor of cart-based trash service.ĚýCharlotte Pitt, manager ofĚýDenver Recycles andĚýSolid 91TV Management, understands that thatâs a controversial statement.
âThere was a lot of fear when we took dumpsters away,â Pitt says of the process that began four years ago. âWe heard comments when we visited with neighborhood organizations and residents to talk about transitioning, and one of the big fears was that âTrash carts arenât going to hold all my waste,â or âIâm not going to remember my trash day,â and âWhat about the elderly and disabled people?â âWhere am I going to put my cart?ââ But when she circled back to the neighborhood groups after the change, Pitt found that their fears had been just that: fears.
In 2010, Denver drew up a plan to more effectively manage waste. Serious changes needed to be made: Solid 91TV Management was collecting 220,000 tons of trash a year, or 440,000,000 pounds, and most of it was either compostable or recyclable. Another big problem was illegal dumping, much of which Pitt suspected came from contractors and small businesses. So four years ago, the city started replacing dumpsters with individual carts that homeowners and apartment-dwellers roll out to the street for pick-up on designated days.
The theory behind the trash cart is simple: The smaller the end container, the more people will think about what theyâre throwing away. And it seems to be working. Last year, the city collected 30,000 tons less trash than in 2010; since 2015, there has been a 140-pound reduction on average per household. Whatâs more, âWhat weâve seen as weâve rolled out the carts are more people are reporting illegal dumping when it happens now,â Pitt says. âWhereas someone may have in the past put extra waste besides a dumpster with the idea that we would see it [and pick it up], now if someone does dump, we get a call pretty quickly that it happens.â
Itâs not a perfect system. Prowl Denverâs streets and alleys, and youâll surely come across piles of trash â sofas, old TVs â mounded by the new carts. Those carts arenât immediately feasible for every home and apartment building, either, especially in denser areas of the city. According to Pitt, some leasing companies and landlords are more cooperative than others and will make space for a few carts â though technically, every unit the city services is eligible for one. âEither the building will say, âHey, we donât need [individual] trash carts; weâll share,â [or] in other instances…weâve seen individual units say, âNo, I want my own trash cart, but I donât generate that much…so Iâll opt into the smallest-sized trash cart.ââ (Residents should call 311 to change the size of their carts.)
But a fundamental issue with Denverâs waste-management program remains the way that residents are charged for trash pick-up. Unlike some cities that bill for the service directly and hit up big wasters for more, households here arenât directly charged for trash services; the fee is incorporated into our taxes. âIf you look at any city across the country thatâs achieving high waste diversion â Seattle, San Francisco, Portland â all of them have some sort of pay-as-you-throw structure,â Pitt says. âIt treats waste as a utility, where you pay for how much you use. Thatâs an industry best-management practice to achieve higher waste-diversion goals.â
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