Biggest Hurdle
One of the main reasons Broomfield hasn’t adopted a curbside composting service yet is that we have multiple trash haulers operating in the city.
Waste companies that contract to pick up compost usually want a single contract for an entire city or section of the city.
Possible Solutions
An easy answer would be for Broomfield to adopt a single waste service provider for the entire city, right?
A few years ago this idea was proposed; however, there was a great deal of opposition from people who wanted the right to choose their own trash hauler and didn’t want the local government to be in charge of this service.
An alternative to adopting a single waste service provider might be to have mutually exclusive service areas throughout the city. With mutually exclusive service areas, each hauler could build a route based on critical mass, and no one would lose customers.
These are discussions the city intends to have once they accumulate more data about the current state of waste diversion within Broomfield.
Gathering Data
Right now, the Advisory Committee on Environmental Sustainability (ACES) is gathering data from individual haulers for 2020, and from a trash audit performed by CU Denver, which will provide the city with a baseline of what is sent to the landfill in Broomfield.
Preliminary results show that 77% (Report from ACES) of single-family residential waste could be diverted from the landfill through recycling and composting.
ACES has also applied for a grant to pay for a consultant to help make sure a curbside composting proposal would be approved by the public and passed by the city council. If they get the grant, they could start with the consultant in 2021 and it is estimated to take 8-10 months before a proposal is made to the council.
What Can You Do?
The city would like to hear from you about these issues! By taking this short survey, you can help make your voice heard regarding recycling/composting on the ACES Zero Waste official webpage.
Due to the extended timeline for attaining curbside composting, Sustainable Broomfield has recently started our own Compost Club!
Email Brianna at Sustainablebroomfield@gmail.com for the details. Or check out the backyard composting section of our Resources page to learn how to do your own composting at home.
