Denver Collective Uses Bikes to Gather Food Waste for Composting

According to Scraps, up to 50 percent of what Denverites throw away is organic matter that could be composted. While the city of Denver does offer a composting program, they stop short of serving residential buildings with more than seven units. Additionally, small businesses and restaurants often have logistical problems that come with composting, including storage and transportation. Scraps fills in the gaps by picking up organic waste and hauling it, via bicycle, to existing commercial compost pick-up spots. Since the organization had its first run in mid-June, Scraps has averted more than 2,000 pounds of compostable waste from landfills.

Work & Class was Scraps’ first restaurant partner, and since they started using the service, the eatery has reduced its trash from 20 to 30 bags of garbage per week to two to three bags per week, with 80 percent going to compost and 10 percent going to recycling over the course of three weeks. “Compost has always been a conversation we’ve had, but there are space constraints when you have to sort the compost by putting produce in one bin and meat in another one,” says Tabatha Knop, general manager of Work & Class, the first local restaurant to work with Scraps. “Because we are so small, we can’t have a compost bin.”