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  • LEARN ABOUT ZERO WASTE

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      • Zero Waste Is a Climate Change Solution
      • Why Zero Waste Is Often Left Out of Climate Action Plans

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  • OUR PROGRAMS

    • Reducing Plastics
      • The Global Plastics Crisis
      • Eliminating Problematic Plastics
      • Better Recycling Starts with Better Product Design
      • Producer Responsibility to Reduce Plastics
      • Campaigns & Policies to Reduce Plastics
      • The Problem with Microplastics

    • Composting and Carbon Farming
      • Building a Circular Compost System
      • What Is Carbon Farming?
      • Carbon Farming in Boulder County
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      • What Is Biochar?
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  • ECO-LIVING

    • Refuse and Reduce
      • Why Reduce?
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      • How to Stop Junk Mail
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      • Be Straw Free

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      • Why Recycle?
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  • GUIDES & RESOURCES

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Curbside Composting

Access to curbside composting is an integral part of a Zero Waste community, helping to recover materials that aren’t compostable in backyard bins.

Curbside Composting

Access to curbside composting is an integral part of a Zero Waste community, helping to recover materials that aren’t compostable in backyard bins.

Curbside Composting

Access to curbside composting is an integral part of a Zero Waste community, helping to recover materials that aren’t compostable in backyard bins.

Composting 101

  • Why Compost?
  • How to Compost in Your Backyard
  • Composting with Worms
  • Winter Composting

Curbside Composting and Its Role in Building a Zero Waste Community

In a fully realized Zero Waste world, whatever waste cannot be reduced, reused, or repaired is recovered by either recycling or composting. Trash cans are replaced by recycling and composting bins, and the idea of waste is eliminated entirely. 

While 100% recovery is not currently possible, we ARE on the path to getting there: Estimates show that in most communities, it is possible to recover 90% of our waste by recycling, composting, and fully adopting Zero Waste policies and practices. 

That’s why communities that embrace curbside composting by providing it to every single-family household see dramatic reductions in waste that is sent to the landfill—recent estimates show that just by adopting curbside composting, communities can recover up to 50% of their waste.

How is curbside composting different from backyard composting? 

Curbside compost goes to an industrial composting facility, where tons of organic materials like food and yard debris are able to decompose in massive windrows that reach 131–170 degrees Fahrenheit (what’s known as the “thermophilic range”). This high heat allows the compost piles to break down many of the items that can’t break down in your backyard compost pile, such as bones. This compost process also destroys pathogens, making it safe to compost animal products.

Within four months of reaching an industrial compost facility, your leftover food can be returned to the earth to feed plants or improve degraded land.

Why do we need curbside composting?

In a Zero Waste community, every home is outfitted with three separate bins—one for recycling, one for compost, and one for trash. Curbside compost bins can help recover waste that doesn’t belong in the recycling bin and that can’t be processed in backyard or worm composting bins, such as animal products. Curbside composting has been known to boost communities’ waste diversion rates.

Curbside Composting Guidelines

For those who have access to curbside composting, it’s important to make sure only truly compostable items—that is, items that are free of plastic and will safely decompose in an industrial compost pile—go in your curbside compost bins.

  • Learn more about curbside composting guidelines for Boulder County

Curbside Composting’s No. 1 Contaminant: Plastic

We cannot stress this enough: Plastic does not belong in curbside compost bins. When processed in massive compost piles, plastics break down into smaller and smaller pieces, and while we may not be able to see these pieces, they are wreaking havoc on our underground ecosystems, making their way into soils, the food chain, groundwater, and even our bodies.

Eco-Cycle’s own research has proved that composted plastic does not “go away,” and our campaign to get microplastics out of compost has seen a 50% reduction within the US in compost facilities that accepted plastic-coated paper products, one of the most pervasive forms of plastic contamination in compost.

  • See our recently updated compost guidelines for common compost contaminants to keep out of your bin!

Related Resources

  • Resources

Guidelines Poster: Curbside Composting

Guidelines Poster: Backyard Composting Guidelines

Video: Zero Waste Video Series- Why Compost?

Video: La Serie de Zero Waste en Español – ¿Por qué compostar?

See All Resources
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  • ABOUT US
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  • LEARN ABOUT ZERO WASTE
    ▼
    • Zero Waste 101
      ▼
      • What Is Zero Waste?
      • What Is Producer Responsibility?
      • Resource Library
    • Zero Waste and Climate
      ▼
      • A Climate Change Solution
      • Left Out of Climate Action Plans
    • Zero Waste Benefits People
      ▼
      • Zero Waste & Social Justice
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    • Zero Waste Benefits the Planet
      ▼
      • Pollution & Public Health
      • Resource Conservation
  • SERVICES AND FACILITIES
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      • CHaRM Fees
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    • Boulder County Recycling Center
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  • OUR PROGRAMS
    ▼
    • Reducing Plastics
      ▼
      • The Global Plastics Crisis
      • Eliminating Problematic Plastics
      • Better Product Design
      • Plastics Producer Responsibility
      • Campaigns & Policies
      • The Problem with Microplastics
    • Composting & Carbon Farming
      ▼
      • A Circular Compost System
      • What Is Carbon Farming?
      • Carbon Farming in BoCo
      • Microbe Brew Compost Tea
      • What Is Biochar?
      • State & National Efforts
    • Zero Waste Colorado
      ▼
      • State of Recycling & Composting
      • Statewide Campaigns
      • Community Campaigns
      • Zero Waste Denver Campaign
      • Implementing the PPRA
        ▼
        • For Municipalities
        • For Businesses
        • For Communities
    • Boulder County Zero Waste Model
      ▼
      • Zero Waste Policies
      • Zero Waste Programs
        ▼
        • Schools Programs Overview
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        • Event Services
  • ECO-LIVING
    ▼
    • Refuse & Reduce
      ▼
      • Why Reduce?
      • Reducing Waste Starts at Home
      • How to Stop Junk Mail
      • Reduce Your Plastic Use
      • How to Reduce Food Waste
      • Be Straw Free
    • Reuse, Repair & Share
      ▼
      • Reusables as a Solution
      • Repair Resources
      • Reuse and Share Portal
      • Tour de Thrift
      • Zero Waste Holiday Guide
    • Recycling 101
      ▼
      • Why Recycle?
      • The Truth About Plastics Recycling
      • Recycling Myths
      • Household Hazardous Waste
    • Composting 101
      ▼
      • Why Compost?
      • Backyard Composting
      • Curbside Composting
      • Composting with Worms
      • Winter Composting
  • GUIDES & RESOURCES
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    • Guides for Boulder County
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        • Changing Compost Guidelines
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    • Research and Reports
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      • More Reports
    • Resource Library
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    • Popular Tools
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Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 19006
Boulder, CO 80308

Office & CHaRM Address:
6400 Arapahoe Rd.
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