A new curbside composting business has been launched in Montezuma County, marking the first time residents can have food scraps picked up from their homes.
MoCo Compo was founded by Dolores residents Oliver and Erin Hardick, and the couple successfully completed their first pickup on Monday.
sTo participate, interested community members can sign up on MoCo Compo’s website by paying $15 per month. Then, the Hardicks drop off a five-gallon bucket that each household fills with food scraps.
The buckets will be emptied on a biweekly schedule and taken to the landfill’s composting facility. Currently, the service is only available within the city limits of Dolores, Cortez and Mancos, but the Hardicks hope to expand countywide and to restaurants, schools and other businesses in the future.
The goal is to have 50 households participating by the end of the summer.
The idea for MoCo Compo came when Oliver Hardick attended a tour of the Montezuma County Landfill with Leadership Montezuma last fall. While there, he learned about the composting infrastructure in the county and the lack of food scrap composting. After that, Oliver and Erin decided to fill this gap with the goal of reducing methane emissions from the landfill.
“We learned that the only composting they were doing was bio solids and no one was, at least to their knowledge, bringing food scraps to the landfill, and that certainly piqued my interest,” Oliver Hardick told The Journal.
The Hardicks shared that food scraps account for about ⅓ of household trash in the U.S. When decomposing in landfills, it releases the potent greenhouse gas methane.
Though there are many reasons to compost, some reasons Erin Hardick noted were the benefits to farmers and helping in drought.
“I think one of the big ones is that compost that’s being produced from food scraps can be used to grow vegetables,” Erin Hardick said. “It is very effective at helping the soil retain moisture and build drought resistance.”
Composting could also reduce the frequency of bears getting into trash, she said.
“We have a gamma seal on the buckets, and we approved the containers with the town of Mancos and town of Dolores to make sure they meet their safety codes,” Erin Hardick said. “So, now you have all your food scraps in one place, and less likelihood that a bear is gong to be ripping through your huge trash can.”
The program accepts a wide range of food scraps, including meat and dairy and some paper products. It does not accept bones or items labeled as “compostable” plastic, which require higher temperatures to breakdown than the facility provides.
Landfill manager Mel Jarmon told the Journal that community members should ensure they do not add trash to their food compost or recycling and follow the list of acceptable foods for composting. If the guidelines are not followed, the entire batch will go to the landfill, rather than the composting site.
Full guidelines and sign-ups are available on the business’s website at www.mococompo.com.
bduran@the-journal.com
