Denver is expanding its composting program in 2016 thanks to an expanded budget with the hope of easing the burden on the city’s landfills.

The city’s Solid Waste Management department will add one route in the coming weeks and two more this summer. The new routes will increase composting eligibility by about 7,500 homes. By year’s end the city will be able to service about 17,500 homes.

The program will expand to various areas throughout the city — mostly bordering already existing routes — with a good portion coming in the southeast and southwest areas of the city. The summer routes have not yet been determined, but according to manager of Denver Recycles/Solid Waste Management Charlotte Pitt, the city will likely break into the Green Valley Ranch neighborhood near Denver International Airport.

Each route costs about $400,000 to start, which includes a new truck. The program’s budget for 2016 is $660,000; the new trucks were purchased in 2015.

The program started as a pilot project in 2008 and became a fee-based service in 2010. It expanded to four routes in 2014.

Denver has notably lagged behind in the percentage of residents that compost. According to Pitt, about 50 percent of trash people throw away is compostable and another 25 percent is recyclable.

“If you want to achieve significant waste diversion away from landfills, composting is the one single program we can do,” Pitt said.

Residents who sign up for the composting program get a 2-gallon pail and a large trash container to bring to the curb on weekly pickup days. They also pay $9.70 per month on a quarterly basis or $107 if they pay for a whole year. Items commonly composted include food and yard waste and paper products that can’t be recycled, such as paper towels.

“Because it’s still fee-based, we’re not seeing the same level of participation as recycling, but it’s a step in the right direction,” Pitt said.

Ideally, the city would like to move away from a fee-based system. Councilman Chris Herndon, who co-sponsored a bill to fund the program’s expansion, said he would like to see the service be free in the near future.

“As a city, we should be able to flip that,” Herndon said, adding that he thinks the city should be seeing improvement in the next few years with composting and recycling. “I think a couple years is certainly reasonable, and we can exceed the recycling and composting average if we give everyone the option.”

Denver’s Chief Sustainability Officer Jerry Tinianow said the goal is to continue to expand the program and get the city up around the national average of a 35 percent diversion rate from its landfills. Currently, Denver is at 16 percent.

“It’s just going to have to be a slow, steady process year after year,” Tinianow said. “Hopefully, we can get to a point where we can charge less or nothing at all. We’re a ways away from that.”

Pitt said that about 11 percent of the eligible homes compost, while more than 70 percent use the recycling program, which is free.

Still, there were many residents who jumped at the chance to take part in the program.

Cory-Merrill neighborhood resident Nancy Rullo found out about the composting program through fliers that the city mailed out in advance of opening up in that neighborhood about two years ago.

She said composting and recycling has reduced her family’s trash by about two-thirds, which is even more convenient since the city removed the large trash bins — or Dumpsters — from the neighborhood and replaced them with individual trash containers.

“It’s a great way for us to take care of our garbage,” Rullo said. “It’s a wonderful opportunity for people to learn about composting.”

Joe Vaccarelli: 303-954-2396, jvaccarelli@denverpost.com or @joe_vacc