Journal 108: Trash Talk

In forty years of Pinehaven meeting minutes, only elections appeared more consistently than trash. During the summer of 2026, I read more than 450 pages of minutes from Pinehaven board and annual membership meetings, hoping to identify the community’s recurring challenges.

I never expected such an ordinary service to reveal so much about Pinehaven’s changing needs, finances, and community life.

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A Multifaceted Problem

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Rather than stemming from a single cause, Pinehaven’s growing trash challenge resulted from the convergence of several long-term trends. As more cabins were built with more effective insulation and constant access to city water and sanitation, year-round use increased, as did the need for household waste disposal. Lighter winters and heavier summer use also extended the periods when dumpsters were needed. Unauthorized use by nonresidents was an ongoing frustration as well. The improper disposal of bulky materials and the growing volume of cardboard from online shopping also placed additional strain on the system.

The Association also extended trash service to a small number of full-time households outside the Association. These homes are accessed by county roads branching from Pinehaven’s entrance road. In exchange for year-round trash service, each household pays an annual fee equal to Pinehaven’s annual membership dues. Although limited in number, their year-round use contributed to the overall volume of trash requiring disposal.

Together, these factors gradually transformed trash disposal into one of the Association’s most persistent challenges and responsibilities.

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Trash Through the Years

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Before the board secured the current dumpster service at the entrance, POA volunteers worked shifts and often borrowed trailers, trucks, and whatever equipment was available to haul residents’ trash to area landfills in Walsenburg, La Veta, and Trinidad.(1)

The surviving board records first document paid trash hauling in 1996, when the Association spent $385 for eleven trips. That year, members also raised annual dues from $15 to $25, citing trash pickup as one reason more revenue was needed.(2)

In 1997, disposal remained inconvenient. Owners carried trash to the Cuchara Recreation Center during a one-hour Tuesday morning window and paid $5 per bag while the Association searched for a better arrangement.(3) A major change came in 1998, when the board established weekly collection in Pinehaven from June through September for $141 per month. By September, three containers were in use, including one strong enough to resist bears, and the board approved continuing the service the following summer.(4)

By 2004, Pinehaven used one large dumpster and two smaller ones from mid-May to early October. In October 2005, the board began leaving dumpsters in Pinehaven through the winter. Summer collection remained weekly, while winter pickup occurred every two weeks and was funded through voluntary owner contributions.(5)

As the years pasted, year-round trash service brought greater convenience, but rising costs, limited capacity, and unauthorized use created ongoing problems. By 2008, the board was weighing additional dumpsters against a projected $1,360 deficit while also urging owners to protect the combination from people outside Pinehaven.(6)

As trash volume grew, Pinehaven’s seasonal system expanded from three dumpsters in 2010 to four during the busiest summer months by 2016. Even with the added capacity, the board still had to combat overflowing bins, yard waste, shared combinations, and other misuse through clearer signs, new locks, and repeated reminders to owners.(7)

By 2020, Pinehaven’s trash system had expanded to as many as four dumpsters during longer periods. The convenience came at a growing price, with annual disposal costs climbing from less than $5,000 in 2020 to nearly $6,900 by 2023, making trash and yard waste the Association’s largest recurring expenses.(8)

In June 2021, a committee confirmed that capacity was frequently exhausted and recommended keeping more dumpsters open throughout the year. To pay for the expansion, the board proposed raising annual dues from $100 to $150.(9)

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The Cost of Convenience

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Trash service dramatically improved life in Pinehaven, replacing inconvenient individual disposal trips with reliable service for seasonal and year-round residents. The Association’s accomplishment was not solving trash once and for all, but sustaining and expanding the service despite rising costs, wildlife concerns, contractor limitations, and repeated abuse.

What began as eleven paid hauling trips in 1996 became a year-round system using as many as four dumpsters and consuming a major share of Association dues. Trash appeared so often in Pinehaven’s minutes because providing this ordinary service required an extraordinary amount of cooperation, adaptation, and persistence.(10)