Denver wants to boost recycling by charging for garbage

Denver residents would pay a monthly fee for garbage hauling while getting recycling and compost bins picked up weekly as part of the deal, in a proposed major overhaul of waste handling aimed at lifting local and statewide recycling rates closer to the national average. 

Residents of single-family homes and apartments up to seven units would pay up to $21 a month for the largest garbage bin — less for smaller bins, as an incentive to recycle — and enjoy a doubling in recycling pickup frequency. Low-income residents would pay less on a sliding scale, down to zero for some. Dwellers in larger apartment buildings would still have to arrange for private-pay recycling, as they currently do. 

Recycling advocates and the city’s sustainability office are pushing hard for the change,…