Aspen, Colorado, helps restaurants comply with compost mandate

According to Jimena Baldino, waste diversion and recycling specialist for the city of Aspen, Colorado, the city’s compost program looks like a success, Aspen Daily News reports.

The city implemented the first stage of its organic waste-diversion ordinance in October. The ordinance requires any business with a retail food license, which means all restaurants and catering companies working within the city limits, to divert food waste from the landfill.

Data collected at the landfill show that the amount of food waste coming into the compost section of the landfill increased by 70 percent in the first four months on this year compared to the same period in 2023. The year-to-date increase is 54 percent, according to the story, which reflects the fact that many restaurants close in May and early June.

Keeping food waste out of the landfill helps to preserve space in the county’s rapidly filling landfill, located eight miles from Aspen, but also keeps organics turning into methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas. Engineers are working on plans to double the size of the landfill to accommodate 70 years of waste, according to the story, and an expansion would likely include additional space for composting as the program grows.

Cathy Hall, Pitkin County’s solid waste director, attributes the near-doubling of compost coming into the landfill to the 104 businesses in Aspen’s city limits that now fall under the compost requirement, most of which are restaurants and most of which are new to the composting process.

Baldino and the city’s waste diversion and recycling administrator Ainsley Brosnan-Smith have started visiting local restaurants to ensure composting is underway. They are working to educate and train restaurant workers on the ins and outs of composting and also explaining why composting matters and the difference it can make in the community.

RELATED: Aspen, Colorado, organic waste diversion ordinance deemed a success

“We’re pretty confident the majority of every restaurant is participating in this program,” Brosnan-Smith says. “[We] try to make them have more buy-in personally so they know they’re contributing to a really positive effort that’s helping the environment.”

Additionally, Baldino and Brosnan-Smith help restaurants set up best practices, such as having easily accessible trash cans for items such as plastic gloves and bags—the most frequent contaminants—next to compost bins.

The city spent $150,750 to provide restaurants with bear-proof steel containers with a complicated latching mechanism that automatically locks.

In January 2026, the waste-diversion ordinance will extend to include all commercial businesses and multifamily housing, and in January 2028, all Aspen residents will be required to compost.