Denver isn’t on track to meet its 2020 recycling and composting goal because of lack of composting. Charlotte Pitt, interim director of Solid Waste Management for Denver, said 50 percent of what Denver residents discard could be composted, while only 25 percent 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.