A Denverite’s Guide to Composting Methods: Find What’s Right for Your Home!

Even though Denverites are recycling and composting more and more each year, an alarming amount of“good stuff” (otherwise known as recyclable and compostable material) is still ending up in Denver’slandfill. As shocking as it may sound, more than half of the materials Denver residents currently send to the landfill are organic (once living) materials and could have been composted. Denver can certainly do better, and doing so starts with decisions made in your home!Denver Recycles offers a number of tools to help Denver residents reduce the amount of materialending up in Denver’s trash. Not every approach is feasible or appropriate for every home, but there is something that can work for everyone. To maximize the benefits of keeping this “good stuff” out of the landfill, Denver Recycles encourages residents to choose one, two, or all of the compost options outlined below.

The options below can and should be combined for best results at your home, and for maximum benefit to the environment:

• Denver Composts! Enroll in Denver’s fee-based compost collection program and receive a green kitchen compost pail, a green compost cart, and weekly collection service. This program accepts food, non-recyclable paper products, and yard debris. Denver Composts is now offered in all Denver neighborhoods!
• Cherry Creek Recycling Drop-off (CCRD). The CCRD accepts single-stream recyclables and all material accepted in the Denver Composts! program. The site is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and is especially helpful for the occasional surplus of compostable (or recyclable) materials.

• Backyard Composting. Backyard composting is a fun and rewarding way to reduce waste and create a useful compost product in your own backyard. To learn more about the backyard composting process, build skills, or just boost your confidence in your ability to turn food scrapsand garden debris into compost at home, consider signing up for one of Denver’s FREE Learn to Backyard Compost classes (offered May through October at Denver’s Backyard CompostDemonstration Site). Or, just make a trip to Denver’s Backyard Compost Demonstration Site tofind inspiration, and to check out the various methods and containers that can be used for backyard composting.

• Worm Composting. Worm composting, also known as vermicomposting, is an indoor composting option available to everyone, and an ideal option for apartment dwellers and anyone else with limited space. A healthy worm box full of red-wiggler worms will happily consume their weight in veggie scraps and leaves each week, producing a high-quality soil amendment that can be used to feed gardens and houseplants alike.

No matter how it’s done, composting is an approachable and meaningful action that helps Denver residents decrease their impact on the climate, conserve resources, reduce pollution, and improve soil health. And, composting is essential for Denver to be able to meet its 2020 Sustainability Goal of keeping 34% of its waste out of the landfill. For these reasons, Denver Recycles encourages residents to choose one or all the above options for managing organic waste at home!Don’t delay-- start composting even more, today! For more information about backyard compost,Denver Composts!, and other Denver Recycles programs, visit DenverGov.org/DenverRecycles or call311 (720-913-1311).