Curbside Composting
Every Scrap Matters
Every scrap matters! Composting increases the life of the landfill, protecting our natural areas. Feed your kitchen scraps and leftovers to the green bin. It matters, it's quick, it's our future.
Become a neighborhood zero waste champion!
Are you interested in learning more about hard to recycle items? Want to get composting at your complex? Have questions about waste in general? We want to get as many members of our community involved as we can! Sign up to become an Eco-Cycle Eco-leader volunteer.
Curbside Composting Service:
In April 2025, the Town launched the Three Cart System, which automatically includes curbside composting in service, to an initial group of 1,100 households already on the Town contract. The Three Cart System will be available to residents in Rock Creek, Saddlebrooke and the Summit starting in 2028.
If you are in one of the single-family home neighborhoods not currently on the Town contract and want to have curbside composting access now, call Waste Connections at 303-288-2100 to add compost service for an additional fee. The Town will be engaging residents on the topic of expanding service requirements for recycling and compost service at apartment complexes in 2026. Email sustainability@superiorcolorado.gov if you're interested in participating in that process.
If you do not have curbside service and are interested in a drop off site, you can bring your compost to CHaRM in Boulder.
What is Curbside Composting
Composting is a simple yet powerful way for residents of Superior to support the Town’s climate and waste reduction goals while also creating a valuable soil amendment. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, organic waste makes up about 30% of the waste sent to landfills. Keeping compost out of the landfill makes a big difference and every little bit adds up!
Like recycling, composting is an important way to close the loop and give items new life. A large number of things we throw away could be kept out of the landfill and made into useful products instead.
What Can You Compost?
Curbside compost collection makes composting convenient. Commercial composting is a slightly different process than a backyard compost pile, so a commercial site can accept and successfully break down things like meat and dairy that you wouldn’t be able to compost at home easily. Republic Services, Superior’s contracted waste hauler, accepts the following via curbside collection:
YES:
- Fruit and vegetable scraps (remove stickers, twist ties, rubber bands, and packaging)
- Coffee grounds and tea bags (remove coffee filters and tea bag tags)
- Eggshells, bones, meat, and cheese
- Yard and plant trimmings (no pesticides/herbicides previously applied)
- Countertop compostable bags (3 gallons or smaller)
NO:
- Food service ware (Including products like plates, cups, and utensils labeled as compostable)
- Plastic of any kind
- Produce stickers
- Paper products
- Greasy Pizza Boxes
- Compostable bags larger than 3 gallons
- Synthetic materials or yard waste sprayed with pesticides/herbicides
FAQs:
Is it really that important not to put my food scraps in the landfill?
Yes, it’s very important.
There are lots of reasons to support composting including the process:
- Creates a new valuable soil amendment
- Extends the life of the landfill to protect future land
- Reduces our impact on climate change
When we throw food scraps and other organic materials into the landfill, they decompose without access to oxygen (a process called anaerobic decomposition). This creates methane, a greenhouse gas that is over 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the short term. Methane traps a significant amount of heat in our atmosphere and accelerates climate change. Composting, on the other hand, allows that same material to break down with oxygen (aerobically), which prevents methane from forming. The result is healthy, nutrient-rich soil that can be used in gardens, landscaping, and agriculture. By composting instead of landfilling, we can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create something useful in the process.
Can I take food scraps to the Town Yard Waste Site?
The Town Yard Waste Site can only accept items like leaves, branches and grass clippings. The facility that process food scraps into compost is a different site than processes the waste from the Town site into mulch, so food scraps cannot be accepted.
What can I do if I am concerned about smell?
Precautions can be taken to prevent odors from becoming a problem. Typically, smells are not a huge issue for most people when it is less than 90 degrees outside.
Here are some solutions to consider if you have concerns about smell:
- Using a kitchen compost container and taking your scraps out more frequently can make a big difference and will also keep your kitchen trash from smelling bad.
- Lining your kitchen compost container with compostable green bags will keep it cleaner and more contained.
- Freeze your compostable materials (usually in a compostable bag) until pick-up day, which eliminates odors entirely.
- Additionally, some people stop composting on the hottest days and resume when weather is cooler.
Every bit adds up, so we encourage you to find a method that works for you!
What about animals and pests?
If you’re not currently having issues with animals getting into your trash, you’re unlikely to encounter problems with a compost bin. Remember, you’re already disposing of food scraps - they’re just going into a different container now. Republic Services provides bins with secure lids designed to keep pests out. If your lid get cracked or your bin has issues, contact Republic for a new one as soon as possible to reduce issues. Just like your trash can, as long as the compost bin is emptied routinely and sealed, pests and other wildlife should not be an issue.
But I don't have anything to compost. Do I still need a compost bin?
You might be surprised at how much of your everyday waste is actually compostable. Even if you do not cook much or produce a large volume of food waste, items such as coffee grounds, eggshells, fruit peels, garden clippings, and even pizza crusts can all be put in the compost bin.
Even families that produce small amounts of compostable waste are encouraged to participate because even small actions, when performed by many people, add up to a large combined result. However, if you have Town service, you can opt-out of having a compost cart, though it will not reduce the cost of service which is based only on your garbage cart size.