Denver Arts and Venues commits to composting
It’s official: Composting is the new black.
There is a reason we’ve repeatedly written about composting initiatives over the last few months. That’s because the composting movement is rapidly gaining momentum, with more and more people, businesses, and municipalities getting on board.
Denver Arts and Venues will begin composting cups and plates. From Shella Sund.
The latest story comes from none other than the mile-high city. Denver’s “Arts and Venues” is a civic event organization. They are involved with a multitude of entertainment and cultural activities happening in Denver, and have jurisdiction over some of the city’s most famous venues, including the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheater.
Now Denver Arts and Venues is taking a bold step by committing to composting disposable food service items such as cups and plates. Both the Red Rocks Amphitheater and the Denver Coliseum can hold around 10,000 people—and that adds up to a lot of food service items.
In order to facilitate composting, Denver Arts and Venues will require the use of compostable food service items starting next year. For some venues, that’s actually not as dramatic of a change as you might think. Red Rocks, for example, already composts about 80 percent of their food service items.
Still, moving all city concessions to compostable food service items makes a big statement—and it will have a big impact. The goal is to get as close as possible to 100 percent landfill diversion.
Denver Arts and Venues spokesperson Brian Kitts says that the initiative supports Denver’s image as “a sustainable city.”
They’re keeping things local, with a Boulder, Colorado-based company tasked with supplying compostable packaging and recyclable items for city venues. That company, Eco-Products, will emboss items with a special design to promote awareness.
A Commerce City, Colorado-based recycling company (Alpine Waste & Recycling) in charge of collection and processing. Alpine Waste & Recycling will mix the compostable food service items with food scraps and yard waste, ultimately turning it into valuable “soil amendments.”
This initiative proves that a rocking good time and sustainability can peacefully co-exist—and that’s music to our ears.
Category: Blog Landing Page, Food, Recycling programs
