City of Denver’s Residential Composting Collection Program - Denver Composts!
Charlotte Pitt, Manager, City and County of Denver
In 2008, the City of Denver received grant funding to pilot a residential composting collection program.
The grant supported the program through early 2010 and was a huge success, and very well received by
residents. In 2010, the pilot program continued as a fee for service program (other Solid Waste services
are funded through the City’s general tax fund and often perceived as “free”) when participants vocally
opposed the City’s plan to end the pilot for lack of funding. In the 2010 Solid Waste Master Plan the City
discovered that organic waste makes up more than 50% of the municipal solid waste stream and offers
significant opportunities for meeting waste diversion and sustainability goals. Since that time the
economic downturn has made funding for expansion an impossibility, yet community demand continues
to grow.
During this presentation I will share:
1.
A brief overview of the compost collection operations – trucks, containers, routes, hauling
composting contracts, and our expansion of services to 18 schools and 3 municipal buildings.
2. A brief overview of education and marketing efforts, and resulting community support.
3. The city’s plan for expansion and the rollout of its future routes.
BIO
Charlotte is a manager for the City of Denver’s Division of Solid Waste Management. She manages the
City’s residential recycling program, the solid waste transfer station, bulky item collection, and
residential composting collection for the division. She has worked in Denver for 13 years and is
passionate about expanding the City’s residential waste diversion programs.