Denver Aims To Fight Climate Change With Price Hike On Trash Service

Starting on Jan. 1, 2023, Denver residents will have to pay a little more for their trash pickup services.
It will cost $9 a month for a 35 gallon trash can, $13 if you have a 65 gallon bin and $21 for a 95 gallon can. On a positive note, there will be no charges for weekly recycling or compost pickup. Which means the more the community recycles or composts, the less the community has to throw away, meaning the less your fee is going to be. So that really is the point of the price increase here.

If we look at it purely from a money standpoint we are missing the point in what Denver is trying to do. They are trying to incentivize the community to make less waste by recycling and composting, and putting less in our landfills.
For those on lower incomes there will be an instant rebate available to help ease the cost increase. Grace Rink, the Chief Climate Officer for the City of Denver says people in Denver are focused towards green initiatives.
“I think the people of Denver are going to be really excited to participate in this one small way to participate in the fight against climate change.”
Seventy-five percent of the trash from 180,000 Denver households ends up in a landfill where it decomposes and creates climate changing methane, a greenhouse gas. Contributing to the pollution of this city as well as the world. King seemed convinced of the new program’s effectiveness.

Denver City Council passed the measure Monday, but it will not go into effect until the first of the year. We all need to be a little, heck a lot more conscious of what we are wasting. Perhaps now this will get us all into the habit of composting and recycling. If not now, maybe in January people will finally change their habits to be a little greener.