Composting program for upper valley to begin this summer

Local municipalities asked to subsidize the start-up 

By Mark Reaman

A composting opportunity for North Valley residents will get a jump start this summer with the likely help of Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte. Both municipalities will consider pledging $11,210 each to subsidize the services of Elements Mountain Compost, LLC (EMC). That company will collect food materials for composting once a week and take them back to its composting facility in Salida.

The Crested Butte town council approved the general fund expenditure at the May 20 council meeting. The Mt. Crested Butte council is expected to consider the issue at its June 4 meeting. 

In a memo to the Crested Butte town council, it was explained that the drop off site will be on the east side of the Chamber of Commerce Visitor Center at the Four-Way Stop for the upper valley participants. A fenced-in site containing six to eight wildlife-proof bins will be set up with the hope that up to 250 households will sign up for the service. A monthly fee for each household will be set at $17.

Crested Butte’s 2019 Climate Action Plan included the directive to have the town install an industrial-scale composting facility and require community-wide composting by 2025. The memo to council pointed out that constructing such a facility is not financially feasible “however supporting a regional pilot program with an established composting company is significantly more economically feasible and can potentially move us closer to implementing town-wide organic waste diversion policies.”

Studies indicate the town of Crested Butte’s solid waste greenhouse gas emissions increased significantly between 2017 and 2022. Decomposing food in a landfill generates methane gas with 28 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide. “Composting food waste instead of landfilling directly reduces methane emissions,” the memo from town sustainability coordinator Dannah Leeman states. 

EMC’s proposal to the towns indicated composting could reduce a household’s trash by 25%. It currently offers residential compost drop off programs in Chaffee County and in Gunnison, and picks up product from City Market.

“Compost bins will remain closed to conceal any immediate odor and will be serviced once a week to reduce odor potential,” the proposal letter said. “We have not had any odor complaints at any of our existing community drop off locations.”

EMC said the pilot program will last for one year, during which the company hopes to secure enough subscriptions (about 250) to cover the full cost of the program. The company also hopes to establish some commercial accounts to help cover the cost of the program “but the priority will be to serve residential customers.”

EMC stated it is ready to begin the project as soon as a service agreement is finalized. It will then take four to six weeks to purchase and place materials to set up the collection site.