Denver is adding thousands of homes next month to the city’s new composting service, officials said this week.

About 13,400 households in Park Hill, Central Park and parts of East Colfax will receive letters this week notifying them that the service will start in their area in November, Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure said Thursday in a news release.

The residents will then need to let city officials know what size composting cart they’d like by Oct. 27 in order to take part in the first round of cart deliveries in November. New customers also get a small kitchen pail and a how-to guide to help them get started.

The new composting service is free and aims to reduce the amount of waste Denver disposes of in a landfill, officials said. It’s part of Denver’s shift to a volume-based pricing model for trash pickup in which residents pay-as-they-throw, based on the size of their garbage can, which launched in January 2023.

Recycling service is also free as part of the city’s new volume-based trash collection model.

City officials said the compost collection service will begin the week after carts are delivered.

DOTI has split the city into nine different solid waste collection districts and is rolling out this new compost collection service to residents on a district-by-district basis.

This additional rollout in Park Hill, Central Park and East Colfax is part of an expansion in District 3 — an area that already has 5,300 customers using the service, DOTI said.

Last year, DOTI rolled out composting service in District 2 and then added Districts 4, 5, and 8 earlier this year. After launch, officials follow up with an “auditing” process where they check to make sure residents aren’t composting things they shouldn’t be — and then educating households if they did something wrong.

Residents who live in areas where the composting service has been launched can request service at any time if they miss the initial cart delivery, DOTI said.

The department said its initial rollout focused on areas with the lowest “diversion rate,” which refers to the amount of waste that’s diverted from landfills.

DOTI said this latest launch makes compost service available in 62% of Denver. It’s still working on a schedule to launch in the remaining areas of the city next year. Households that don’t have access to the composting program yet are receiving a credit on their invoice until the service becomes available in their area, officials said.