On an unusually warm March afternoon at the Pitkin County Solid Waste Center, David Plush walks up to a steaming pile of dark brown soil.
A loader had just scooped out the center of the compost pile and moved it to a secondary pile, where it will continue decomposing for the next few months.
“Usually you don't get a chance to get inside of it like this,” Plush said. “So we got lucky there.”
Plush, who grew up in Glenwood Springs, has been supervising the compost facility for the past several years and has worked in the waste industry for a while.
“You see these grocery stores that produce so much valuable food that gets thrown away,” Plush said. “We could use it here, turn it into something you just throw in your garden. Maybe grow your own food?”
The world throws away a lot of food. Roughly a third of it goes to waste somewhere in the supply chain, mostly at the household level. Recent estimates suggest the numbers could be even higher — enough to address global hunger. But it also has a massive climate impact.
According to the United Nations, food waste is responsible for 8-10% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions — almost five times the emissions from the entire aviation industry.
Aspen’s solution
In October 2023, the city of Aspen became the first in Colorado to require that all restaurants either donate or compost their food waste.
By 2025, Aspen had more than tripled the amount of organic waste it sent to the compost facility, meaning Plush and his team have had a lot more material to process.
Plush, as a result, has become passionate about the biology of compost.
“That's some of the fungus I was telling you about,” he said, pointing to what looks like white ash on the surface of the compost pile. “It'll get into the soil, and it'll keep growing, and it's so strong that it'll break apart really stiff clay soil — the red soil we have around here.”
The finished product is sold to farmers and landscapers, who add it to their soil. Residents can also come grab a free bucket.
Plush said that white fungi in the compost create pathways for roots, helping plants retain moisture and reducing how much they need to be watered. That’s a big advantage in dry years like this one, but diverting organics into the compost pile also helps slow down climate change.
When natural materials like food break down in a landfill, they release methane, a greenhouse gas that traps 80 times as much heat as carbon dioxide over 20 years.
Minnie Ringland is a senior manager at ReFed, a national nonprofit focused on food waste solutions.
“If we can stop sending food into the landfills, we can slash the methane that's being released,” Ringland said.
Unlike carbon, methane breaks down in the atmosphere pretty quickly.
“We'll actually see cooling effects from that intervention within the next decade or two,” Ringland said. “That's why you'll often hear people referring to methane reduction as this kind of emergency climate brake.”
Community response
Steven Trom is a manager at PARC Aspen, a fine dining restaurant and one of the more than 100 businesses complying with the city of Aspen’s organic waste ordinance.
He said composting requires about an hour of extra training for staff twice a year during their orientation week. It’s now become a regular part of their back-of-house process.
“Every restaurant should be doing this. There's no reason not to do this,” Trom said. “Yeah, we incur a little bit of costs, but it's a wash at the end of the year, and it's the right thing to do.”
Trom said about 90% of their waste is composted. That all used to go to the landfill.
Starting this year, multi-family buildings are also required to compost. The city doesn’t cover the cost of the compost pick-up service, but Jimena Baldino, who oversees the program, said trash service is much more expensive.
“A business in town — their trash was $1,500 a month,” Baldino said. “For the same type of service, their compost was $200.”
As restaurant and building owners compost more of their waste, Baldino said they could save money by cutting back the frequency of their trash service.
She said the process has also made many restaurants realize how much food they’re throwing away.
“Restaurants were like, ‘Oh, we just need the smallest container. There's not that much food waste,’” Baldino recalled. “And then when you see how much you're actually producing, restaurants were like, ‘Oh my god, this is way more than we thought.’”
Baldino hopes that awareness will encourage businesses to buy more responsibly.
“That is, of course, the end goal, right?” Baldino said. “We love composting. We love recycling. But the better we can buy and choose what products we are consuming, that's the best way of reducing our footprint.”
According to Eco-Cycle, which tracks statewide composting progress, cities like Denver, Boulder and Longmont have laws that require businesses and building managers to provide composting services. Glenwood Springs heavily incentivizes composting yard waste.
But Aspen is the only city in Colorado with a law that requires all organic waste to be diverted from the landfill. Starting in 2028, the third phase will go into effect, extending to every resident in city limits.
Plush said compost operations have been growing rapidly. He points to the most recent pile, which he had to make room for a few weeks prior.
“I had to actually go into the hillside and excavate it out a little bit,” Plush said.
Plush said management is discussing how to handle more compost, and they’ll likely hire more staff. He’s happy about the program’s success and what it means for climate progress.
“I'm a big skier, and this year was kind of a bummer, right?” Plush said. “If we all just contribute in our own little way, maybe I'll have a powder year next year.”
