Springs Trash Compare

How to Get a Neighborhood Group Trash Rate in COS

Colorado Springs is one of the only big cities in America where every household hires its own trash company. City code §6.4.103 makes disposal your personal responsibility — there’s no municipal service, no franchise zones, nothing. The result: five different trucks rumbling down the same street every week, each hauler eating the cost of serving scattered customers, and you paying for that inefficiency.

There’s a proven way out, and Colorado Springs neighborhoods are already using it: Pinecliff has run a unified program for years, and in June 2026 the Gazette reported Patty Jewett organizing 100+ homes onto Apex at $18/month trash plus $5/month recycling — well under typical individual rates.

The Pinecliff example: roughly half price

The Pinecliff HOA on the northwest side runs a voluntary unified trash program with Republic Services. As of mid-2026, the documented rate was $11.50/month for trash plus $7.25/month for recycling — roughly half what individual subscribers typically pay, which generally runs $25/month and up (an estimate; no Colorado Springs hauler publishes residential rates).

The HOA posts its current rate card publicly, and it’s worth checking for the latest numbers before you negotiate — group rates reset each service year, so treat any figure here as a snapshot, not a quote.

Two things worth noting about how Pinecliff runs it, per the HOA’s published FAQ: the program is voluntary (nobody is forced to switch), and it’s self-funded — trash payments don’t touch HOA dues. A couple of volunteer coordinators collect sign-ups and the hauler bills the group.

For a second data point: Manitou Springs negotiated a town-wide contract with Republic at $66.01/quarter for trash-only (about $22/month) for the 2025–26 contract year, with a senior discount and a 5% annual cap on increases. That’s a whole municipality’s buying power, and it came in below typical open-market quotes. Group leverage is real.

Why haulers will cut the rate

Trash economics come down to route density. A truck’s costs — driver, fuel, maintenance, landfill tipping fees — are mostly fixed per mile. A hauler serving 8 scattered houses on your street makes eight stops across a route shared with four competitors. Sign up 60 contiguous houses and the same truck does one slow pass down each street: more carts emptied per hour, less fuel per cart, dramatically lower cost per customer.

Haulers know this and have every incentive to discount for it — they just won’t advertise it. None of them publish group or HOA pricing. You have to ask.

This matters more in 2026 than it used to. The market has consolidated hard: Apex Waste Solutions absorbed both Carefree Disposal and Infinite Disposal, WM took over HBS Trash’s residential customers in June 2026, and Republic absorbed GFL’s Colorado business back in 2023. Fewer competitors means less pressure on individual rates — but it also means a dense, committed neighborhood route is exactly the kind of business each remaining hauler wants to win.

How to organize one, step by step

1. Survey your neighbors

Knock doors, post in the neighborhood Facebook group or Nextdoor, or drop flyers. You need three data points per household: current hauler, current monthly cost (tell people to check the actual bill — surcharges hide there), and whether they’d switch for savings in the $10–15/month range — an estimate, but one in line with the documented group rates above. That kind of number gets people’s attention.

2. Establish your baseline

Before you negotiate, know what individual service costs at your address. You can compare every active hauler serving your ZIP code right on our homepage — that’s your “before” number, and it’s your leverage. If the group quote doesn’t beat the best individual quote by a wide margin, keep negotiating.

3. Request group quotes from every hauler

Call each active residential hauler — Apex Waste Solutions, SOCO Waste, Waste Connections, Republic Services, and WM — and say the same thing to each: “I represent N households on contiguous streets in [neighborhood]. What’s your group rate, all fees included?” Get every quote in writing. Haulers quote by phone and prices are negotiable; make them compete.

4. Start with one street

You don’t need 500 homes or a formal HOA vote to begin. Twenty or thirty committed households on one or two connecting streets is a real route-density story a hauler can price. Land the first street, let the savings do your marketing, and expand block by block. Pinecliff’s program grew as an opt-in — yours can too.

What to ask for in the contract

FAQ

Do we need a formal HOA to get a group rate? No. Haulers price route density, not legal structure. A committed list of contiguous addresses is what matters — an informal street group can negotiate the same way an HOA can. An HOA just makes coordination and billing easier.

How many homes do we need? No hauler publishes a threshold. The honest answer: enough contiguous addresses to make a visibly denser route — a street or two of committed households is a credible starting pitch, and your leverage improves as you add blocks.

What if some neighbors won’t switch? That’s fine. Pinecliff’s program is voluntary and always has been. You only need enough participants to justify the rate — holdouts can join later once they see the bills.

Will the discount disappear at renewal? It can shrink — group rates reset each service year — which is why you negotiate an annual cap up front (Manitou got 5%) and re-bid the contract every couple of years. Keep your baseline current by re-checking individual rates for your ZIP on our comparison tool.

Sources: Pinecliff Trash Service FAQ, Manitou Springs garbage contract.

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