Hot take: my town's new compost program hit 400 tons diverted and the city still acts like it's a hobby

Matthew Wilson · 2026-09-29T05:50:03.575298+00:00

I signed up for the curbside compost pilot here in Fort Collins back in March and honestly I just wanted the free bucket. The city emailed us a number this week that said the program has kept 400 tons of food scraps out of the landfill since it started, and I sat there staring at it because that number felt fake. Then I did the math on my own kitchen: our little counter bin fills up about every four days, so that's roughly 90 pounds of peels, coffee grounds, and soggy leftovers from one house in under a year. Multiply that across a few thousand households and yeah, 400 tons checks out. What bugs me is the city council keeps calling it a pilot and talking about the cost per household like this is some cute extra. The landfill is 20 miles out of town and every truck run out there burns diesel, so this is not a side project, it's basic waste math. Has anyone else's city actually made compost pickup a real service instead of a pilot they threaten to cut every budget season?

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Hot take: my town's new compost program hit 400 tons diverted and the city still acts like it's a hobby | Climate Action - Topic Shares