As supporters of Boulder’s Zero Waste Master Plan, the goal to divert materials from landfills continues to drive the strategic operations at Western Disposal. We support reducing the presence of plastic grocery bags as these items never really “go away”, unlike paper bags which can degrade.

While they may be less expensive, to use them only once and then have them last for decades in landfills is foolish and bad for the environment. With Boulder’s wind these plastic grocery bags end up blowing all over the landscape and they also get tangled in our equipment.

Therefore we support a ban on the bags and are ready to assist in public education campaigns to explain the rationale and options as we help Boulder take this step to reduce this type of waste material. With tens of thousands of customers and our growing social media presence we look forward to helping with this effort.

Exclusively for Western Disposal's residential customers: our popular free mulch and compost giveaway event is now scheduled! Help close the loop on this material that has been diverted from the landfill and is ready to help with your gardening and yard project needs. 

When: Saturday, May 19, 2012 from 7:00 AM to 1:00 PM. 

Where: Western's compost yard (NOT the transfer station) located on 63rd Street north of Arapahoe Avenue and south of the entrance to the City's Stazio Ball Fields. Look for signs and check this map. 

What to Know: 

• Up to 1 yard of compost while supplies last (approximately the same amount as 10 bags of compost at the store)
• Unlimited 3-inch mulch
• Bring bags, gloves and a shovel
• Loading equipment will be onsite

Our compost is made from organic and compostable materials collected from Western Disposal customers. Mulch is made from yard waste and branches brought to Western's transfer station. 

Western Disposal customers who own rental properties within certain neighborhoods around CU-Boulder campus (or their property mangers) can choose to sign up for our Six-Day Review program to help manage the seasonal fluctuations in trash volume at their properties as required by the City of Boulder. 

This year's spring Six-Day Review dates are Wednesday, May 9 - Monday, May 14 (no collection on Sunday). 

Click to see the boundary map of the Six-Day Review area. Click to see details to the City of Boulder's Trash and Six-Day Review ordinance requirements. 

NOTE: The City of Boulder has increased the fine from $100 to $250 for the first offense for any rental property in the city's designated Six-Day Review area that has not signed up for trash hauler service as required by municipal ordinance. 

For more details and to sign up for this program call Western Disposal at 303-444-2037. 

As a thank you to our customers, Western Disposal is partnering with Shred-It, a document destruction company, to offer three free shredding days again in 2012. Come visit us on:  

• Sunday, June 10^th
• Sunday, August 12^th
• Sunday, October 7^th

Event hours:      9:00 a.m. until 12:00 p.m.

Event location:  Western Disposal’s Trash and Recycle Center, 5880 Butte Mill Road, Boulder

We have scheduled our shredding event on Sundays, when we are normally closed, so that we are not competing with the traffic of our own equipment and the public bringing in trash, recyclables, yard waste and wood waste. Bring your confidential materials such as tax returns, medical forms, bank statements, etc., for safe and secure destruction.

Please note the following restrictions: 

• Volume limit:  5 copy boxes or 32-gallon bags weighing no more than 35 lbs. each
• No separating required
• Clips and staples are okay
• Folders, notebooks and binders are okay
• No phonebooks, catalogs or magazines will be accepted
• No electronic media will be accepted—paper only!

This is a free shredding event of confidential materials; other recyclables are not accepted.  The event is open to Western Disposal customers only as an appreciation for your business and your loyalty.  Our events are not open to the general public or non-Western customers.

Our event partner, Shred-It, was founded in 1988 and has more than 130 branches on five continents and is one of the world’s leading document destruction companies.  For document destruction done right and at your site in the Boulder area, just call Shred-It at 303-293-9

On March 26 – 28, 2012 Western Disposal will be conducting a study of the materials in residential trash to understand how much recyclable material is going to the landfill. We will have two extra trucks picking up residential trash carts based on size for this project. If it appears our trash truck missed your cart it is likely that a different truck will be coming along soon to pick it up. All trash will be picked up by the end of the day on your regular collection day.

The results of this audit will help us better understand the types of materials that are not being diverted to recycling or compost; as part of our Next Steps to Zero Waste efforts with the City of Boulder we will use this information to design further educational programs that help our customers understand their diversion options. Thank you for recycling and composting!

Exclusively for Western Disposal's residential customers: our popular free mulch and compost giveaway event is now scheduled! Help close the loop on this material that has been diverted from the landfill and is ready to help with your gardening and yard project needs. 

When: Saturday, March 24, 2012 from 7:00 AM to 1:00 PM. 

Where: Western's compost yard (NOT the transfer station) located on 63rd Street north of Arapahoe Avenue and sourth of the entrance to the City's Stazio Ball Fields. Look for signs and check this map. 

What to Know: 

• Up to 1 yard of compost while supplies last (approximately the same amount as 10 bags of compost at the store)
• Unlimited 3-inch mulch
• Bring bags, gloves and a shovel
• Loading equipment will be onsite

Our compost is made from organic and compostable materials collected from Western Disposal customers. Mulch is made from yard waste and branches brought to Western's transfer station. 

We offer several methods to verify your collection schedules and encourage our customers to observe as many of these options as they find convenient: 

• Our hard-copy quarterly newsletters include all upcoming holiday schedules for the calendar year. They are mailed with your invoices.
• Download your collection schedule from our website
• You can receive email reminders of our collection schedule; these are sent a few days in advance of your regular collection day. Sign up for our E-minders here.
• Our website homepage has a scrolling message in advance of major holidays with reminders of the collection schedule
• The Latest News section of our website homepage displays collection schedule reminders in the week ahead of major holidays
• Refer to the hard copy of our collection schedule we mail to our customers
• You can view the collection schedule for your specific address on our website at any time
• Follow our updates on Facebook and Twitter (you can link to these on our homepage)
• We may send automated phone messages to our customers regarding schedule changes; be sure we have your correct number if you wish to be contacted in this manner

If you need to update your mailing address or get hard copies of your schedule please call us at 303-444-2037.

The latest Western Disposal newsletter is available online. Check out articles on our tree branch pick-up effort last October, How to Reduce Junk Mail, The Next Steps to Zero Waste and more!

Click here for the Winter 2012 Customer Newsletter.

You can view and download your residential collection schedule for 2012 by visiting this page.

If you are unsure of your collection schedule category, check your address here.

Western Disposal is happy to offer our annual Christmas tree drop-off program for residents beginning December 23, 2011 through January 31, 2012.

You can bring your Christmas tree to our transfer and recycling station at 5880 Butte Mill Rd in Boulder, Colorado [map] or to the Stazio Ballfields parking lot just east of our property. Look for the signs with more directions at the entrance to our property.

Please Note:

• No wreaths, branches or other items accepted
• Please remove all tinsel, ornamants and other decorations
• Do not bag the trees - if you bring the tree in a bag please remove it before adding to the pile.

Happy holidays from Western Disposal!

Originally posted: December 14, 2011

The upcoming Christmas and New Year's Day holidays occur on Sundays; this means there will be no disruption in our regular collection schedule.

If your regular trash (and compost, if applicable) pickup is on Monday, the day after the holiday, we will be there! To check your regular collection schedule click here or call 303-444-2037. See our Holiday Eminder message here.

Western Disposal is happy to announce the launch of a brand new website designed to provide convenient, helpful and relevant information on our wide range of trash hauling, recycling and composting services. Based on feedback from our customers and the desire to provide best-in-class customer service we have added several features to help website visitors, including:

• A scrolling headline for key updates, alerts and prompts to our customers
• Easy-to-find links in the What Do You Want To Do, Residential Services and Commercial Services areas based on our most popular service requests
• Quick links on the right side of each main category page to help visitors find the right info
• A clickable Google Map to our location
• A "Latest News" feature on the homepage with timely updates such as holiday service changes and announcements
• Links to Western's growing social media presence including Facebook, Twitter, BoulderRecycles.com (our blog) and more to come
• Convenient online forms for requesting service changes, service holds for vacations and links for online billing options
• Details to our zero waste event kits and our diversion efforts to help customers take the next steps toward zero waste
• New photos and more multimedia will continue to be added, check back soon!

"We're excited to have this new look and scope of detail on our website," says Community Relations Coordinator Dan Powers. "Our customers have prompted many of the updates and categories of information we've included and we're proud to offer the range of services that help them in their own goals to reduce their impact on the environment with best-in-class options."

In 2011 Western Disposal added a new tagline that encompasses our 41-year history of helping customers with professional, efficient and effective trash management and waste diversion goals:

Western Disposal - The Way To a Better Environment

Western Disposal has completed the free branch pick-up project for the city of Boulder. As of Monday, November 14, 2011 we are back to our regular collection schedule for trash, recyclables and compost.

Due to the large volume of material we had over a dozen extra trucks running from Monday, October 31 through Saturday, November 12 to complete this task. Our crews picked up over 850 tons of branches by hand over these two weeks. This material will be chipped into mulch and made available soon - check back for details in early 2012.

Thank you to all of our customers who made this clean-up effort effective by bundling and placing branches on the curb!

Branch Pick Up Options:

• We will pick up branches as part of your regular service on your regular compost collection day
• We can accept branches at our transfer station facility at 5880 Butte Mill Rd. in Boulder; fees may apply - call 303-444-2037 for details
• Call 303-444-2037 to arrange for a special pick-up of branches, fees apply

Thanks to all our customers for your patience and help with this project!

Western Disposal - The Way To a Better Environment