Denver, CO
Denver will speed up compost bin delivery next year — while cutting back on recycling pickup
Denver will deliver green compost bins to every solid waste customer who wants one by the end of March, city officials said in announcing an acceleration of their often-maligned rollout.
The citywide expansion of composting service had been expected to take until the end of 2025. But to hit the moved-up deadline — and limit the greenhouse gas emissions of its trucks — Denver will cut back on collecting recyclable items from customers’ purple bins. Recycling pickup will go from weekly to every other week starting Jan. 6.
The frequency of large-item pickup services will also be reduced from once every four weeks to once every nine weeks next year, the city’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure announced Thursday.
The coming changes won’t impact the base prices charged by the city. Pay-as-you-throw trash collection service will still be priced based on the size of the black trash bins each customer uses — ranging from $9 to $21 per month. The city has been providing $9 quarterly credits to customers who are still waiting for compost services. Those credits will end in April, according to DOTI.
The city pivoted to a fee-based trash service and weekly recycling pickups at the beginning of 2023 as it also began making compost pickup a standard free service. Based on observations since then, city officials expressed hope that the tweaks would improve reliability and help the city better meet its landfill diversion and greenhouse gas emission reduction goals.
“What we’ve learned over the years is (that) we are dramatically underusing our recycling bins each week. We are actually increasing our impact on the environment by running that much recycling (pickup) without that much demand,” Mayor Mike Johnston said in an interview. “We can use the people and the trucks to run those weekly compost routes all over the city.”
When the City Council approved the city’s transition of trash collection services to a program funded by fees on residential customers, one of the selling points was a doubling of recycling collection frequency from every other week to weekly.
But the added work put a strain on an understaffed waste collection department immediately, requiring the city to contract with a third-party hauler to provide those weekly pickups in some neighborhoods through 2026. Customers have been frustrated at times with missed pickups of different services.
In May, officials told a council committee that city collectors and contractors were completing 94% of their routes every week through that point in the year, down from 95% in 2023. That completion rate has slipped further since, according to DOTI leadership.
“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,” DOTI executive director Amy Ford said in a DOTI news release. “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%.”
DOTI will be sending letters to 67,000 solid waste customers next month asking them which size compost bin they would like, the release says.
Those customers live in the city’s waste collection districts 1, 6, 7 and 9, which generally cover some northwest, central, east and southeast neighborhoods. They will then have until Jan. 10 to opt into the service and receive their compost bins as part of a first round of deliveries early next year.
There are 180,000 solid waste customers in the city. Bins have been provided in four of Denver’s nine collection districts so far, with rollouts still in progress in District 3, which covers northeastern neighborhoods including Park Hill and Central Park, according to DOTI’s release.
Denverites can dispose of food scraps and yard waste in their compost bins, reducing the amount of waste that otherwise would go to the city’s landfill and emit greenhouse gases like methane as it decomposes. With composting, those items are turned into a nutrient-rich soil additive.
DOTI said the initial wave of requested green-bin deliveries would be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2025. Johnston was more specific during his interview, setting March 15 as the likely completion date for the ramped-up rollout.
The data Johnston and other city officials are using to inform decisions suggest that 50% of a household’s weekly waste is compostable, 25% is recyclable and the final 25% is landfill trash, he said.
DOTI said running large-item pickup on a once-every-four-weeks basis was a factor adding to the city’s waste stream by encouraging people to trash items they might otherwise be able to offload through alternative means.
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Updated (at 3:43 p.m. on Nov. 7, 2024): Due to an error by a reporter, this story originally misreported one of the neighborhoods that is currently receiving compost bins.
Originally Published:
Ken Roczen led Hunter Lawrence into Round 16 at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver with a four-point advantage and a newly acquired red plate. With Lawrence’s win and the reduction of three points, the two riders head to Salt Lake City in a winner-take-all scenario.
Lawrence won his heat, while Roczen finished third in Heat 2.
Lawrence took the feature lead early, and once he sniffed clean air, he steadily increased his gap on second.
“It’s good,” Lawrence told Peacock’s Will Christien. “[At the] five-second board, I’m just so excited. Let’s go out, have fun, and do what I love to do. It couldn’t have been much better than that.”
Lawrence cut the championship deficit to a single point heading into the season finale. The two riders each have five victories.
If Lawrence and Roczen manage to tie in points, which will happen if they finish in the middle of the pack with Lawrence on spot ahead of Roczen, the tiebreaker would come down to second-place results. Lawrence finished second five times early in the season; Roczen has two runner-up results.
Meanwhile, Roczen had a modest start and had to come through the pack. Once he settled into second, he lost the tow of the leader, and ultimately lost more than 12 seconds to Lawrence.
Returning from an injury suffered in Cleveland, Eli Tomac thrilled the hometown crowd with the final podium position. He stalled his bike in sand in the opening laps but executed Beast Mode in the middle stage of the feature.
Fourth-place Malcolm Stewart and Chase Sexton rounded out the top five.
In-Race Notes
Jorge Prado earned the holeshot, but Lawrence took the lead quickly.
Roczen slotted into fourth on the opening lap. There is a five-point gap between first and third in Supercross scoring.
But Roczen secured second from Prado on Lap 3, and trimmed three points from the gap.
Roczen lost 4.5 seconds to Lawrence as he made his way into second.
The third title contender, Cooper Webb, took third from Prado on Lap 5.
Lawrence had the flow in the opening laps. He extended his lead to 6.2 seconds on Lap 7.
Tomac stalled in the sand and fell outside the top five, but found his rhythm and climbed to fourth on Lap 8. Webb lost a position to Prado earlier in that lap.
Lawrence was on a rail, forcing Roczen to ride on the edge of his comfort zone.
A little further back in the field, Justin Barcia was sixth on Lap 10 in his second race back.
Tomac secured third from Prado on Lap 12.
Roczen fell to eight seconds behind on Lap 13. Eight minutes remained on the clock.
The top three settled into a rhythm with seven minutes on the clock. The gap between them was slowly widening.
Cooper and Dylan Ferrandis tangled while challenging for sixth.
One lap later, Webb tangled with Jorge Prado, and both riders lost momentum. Webb hit the dirt and dropped outside the top 10. That ended his dim hope of securing a fourth Supercross championship.
Malcolm Stewart moved into fifth.
One lap later, Stewart grabbed fourth from Sexton.
In all the chaos, Justin Barcia (eighth) climbed into the top 10 in his second race after returning from a scary crash in the season opener at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California.
Ryan Nitzen | May 2, 2026
Denver, Colorado serves as round 16 of the Monster Energy SuperMotocross World Championship at Empower Field at Mile High Stadium. Today is the penultimate round of the Supercross Championship and things are coming down to the wire as Ken Roczen leads the championship by four points over Hunter Lawrence. In 250SX, the Western Divisional Championship is back on track with Haiden Deegan looking to close out his season on top. Let’s get into the action from qualifying!
450 QUALIFYING
Ken Roczen is turning up the heat late as he leads the 450SX points for the first time ever in the second-half of the season. The Progressive Suzuki rider set the fastest lap in the 450’s and posted the fastest time of anyone on track with a 50.103. He was only two-tenths quicker than Hunter Lawrence who took second overall with a 50.314. Chase Sexton looked fast all morning and clocked the time to beat in Q1 before taking third overall.
450SX OVERALL QUALIFYING RESULTS (Top 10)
| 1. | Ken Roczen | (Suz) | 50.103 |
| 2. | Hunter Lawrence | (Hon) | 50.314 |
| 3. | Chase Sexton | (Kaw) | 50.392 |
| 4. | Justin Hill | (KTM) | 50.532 |
| 5. | Dylan Ferrandis | (Duc) | 50.771 |
| 6. | Eli Tomac | (KTM) | 51.010 |
| 7. | Jorge Prado | (KTM) | 51.039 |
| 8. | Justin Cooper | (Yam) | 51.054 |
| 9. | Garrett Marchbanks | (Kaw) | 51.350 |
| 10. | Christian Craig | (Hon) | 51.524 |
250 QUALIFYING
With 250SX West back on track today, it’s no surprise to see Haiden Deegan as the fastest qualifier. He’s already clinched the 250 title so there’s no real pressure other than closing out his 250 career with a win. Deegan heads to the line first going into the night show and was the only 250 rider in the 50-second range. Levi Kitchen was a close second and looks up to speed after a mid-season back injury. Ryder DiFrancesco rounded out the top three after setting the time to beat in the first qualifying session.
250SX OVERALL QUALIFYING RESULTS (Top 10)
| 1. | Haiden Deegan | (Yam) | 50.981 |
| 2. | Levi Kitchen | (Kaw) | 51.348 |
| 3. | Ryder DiFrancesco | (Hus) | 51.562 |
| 4. | Max Anstie | (Yam) | 51.750 |
| 5. | Lux Turner | (Yam) | 52.196 |
| 6. | Max Vohland | (Yam) | 52.692 |
| 7. | Joshua Varize | (Kaw) | 52.696 |
| 8. | Cameron McAdoo | (Kaw) | 52.759 |
| 9. | Carson Mumford | (KTM) | 52.829 |
| 10. | Hunter Yoder | (Yam) | 52.939 |
Denver Notes
- Eli Tomac returns to action today after crashing in Cleveland and missing the last two rounds
- Joey Savatgy crashed in 450 Q1 and injured his wrist. He’s out for tonight’s racing
- Cameron McAdoo is back on track after recovering from a fractured humerus in Seattle
- Kayden Minear makes his pro debut today with the Star Racing Yamaha team
- Gage Linville starts his time with the Triumph Factory Racing Team today
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The Colorado Avalanche will face the Minnesota Wild in the second round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Here’s the schedule and how to watch each game as the Avs continue their 2026 playoff run starting Sunday at Ball Arena.
Avs vs. Wild playoff schedule
Game 1: 7 p.m. Sunday, May 3, Minnesota at Colorado, TNT, truTV, HBO MAX
Game 2: TBD, Minnesota at Colorado
Game 3: TBD, Colorado at Minnesota
Game 4: TBD, Colorado at Minnesota
Game 5*: TBD, Minnesota at Colorado
Game 6*: TBD, Colorado at Minnesota
Game 7*: TBD, Minnesota at Colorado
*If necessary
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