In June 2020, Sustainable Broomfield and the Crescent Grange partnered together to launch a new initiative sorely needed in Broomfield, the Compost Club. The grange had compost bins that were being minimally utilized and Sustainable Broomfield had the outreach to gather together interested participants. After a trial run of 10 people for the month of June, the program was opened up to all interested parties and rapidly grew to capacity by September.
This program has been a resounding success! Currently, 60 people are participating and at least 800 gallons of scraps have been diverted from the landfill. In addition, 70 gallons of finished compost has been created for use in the Grange’s community garden.

To participate in the program, interested parties had to complete a short but comprehensive registration process. They provided basic contact info and watched a short video about composting at the grange. After watching the video and reading through a list of acceptable composting materials, they had to complete an evaluation form to test their knowledge.
Once they passed this evaluation, participants were given directions to pick up their first Compost Club bucket. These buckets were all donated to the club from a variety of sources. At home, the participants filled the buckets with scraps from their kitchen and gardens. When the bucket was full, they dropped it off at the grange and took a clean empty one back home.
Volunteers from the Compost Club, and sometimes participants themselves, dump the scraps into the Grange’s compost bins. (This winter, each participant will be dumping their own buckets into the bins). The volunteers also water and turn the compost to aerate it on a regular basis. Once a bin is full, no more scraps are added and it is simply left to finish composting, while still being turned and watered. After a month or two, the finished compost is sifted to remove contaminants and then added to the garden.
In September, all three bins at the grange were being used and no new members could be accepted. However, an Eagle Scout will be expanding the Grange’s compost setup by building three new bins this winter, so more people will be able to participate in 2021! Interested parties can sign up for our waitlist at http://sustainablebroomfield.com/compost-club/.
Composting is a major way to fight climate change, so thank you to everyone who helped create such a successful program!
Broomfield residents who can’t wait till spring and would like to start composting today can sign up for a curbside composting program with Compost Colorado https://www.compost-colorado.com/.
If you live in the Broadlands or McKay Landing neighborhoods, another composting company, Scraps, is trying to sign up 100 people to be able to bring their less expensive service to our city. Please contact Jessica at jslattery0405@gmail.com to get more info or to sign up.

Recently, we were accepting leaf donations to be used in our compost bins for the next whole year and boy did the community respond! We now have plenty of leaves and cannot take anymore due to a lack of storage locations. Thank you to everyone who donated bags! Additional leaves can be recycled at the Broomfield Tree Branch Recycling facility https://www.broomfield.org/1031/Tree-Branch-Recycling-Program through January 1, 2021. The facility is free, only available to Broomfield residents, and open on Wednesdays from 1-5 pm and Saturdays from 8 am-5 pm. It is located at 2990 W 124th Avenue, Broomfield, and through January 1st, they will also recycle your pumpkins.
If you have any uncut (unpainted) pumpkins, squash, gourds, carrots, sweet potatoes, etc, we are taking donations at the Grange to be given to a local animal sanctuary. Please leave your vegetable donations in the black bin on the back edge of the parking lot. Thank you to everyone who has participated or donated to all of these Sustainable Broomfield/Crescent Grange initiatives!
