Compost Colorado Opens Denver’s First Commercial Composting Facility

Last month, USCC Member Compost Colorado held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the grand opening of their new composting operation—the first commercial composting site within Denver city limits.
 
Compost Colorado’s site utilizes two in-vessel, aerated static pile systems built in upcycled shipping containers. The company was founded in 2018 and has operated their food waste collection program since then. They have been working for multiple years to establish a site of their own to process the food waste collected through their program.
 
While there are multiple compost sites surrounding the Denver area, including a City of Denver-owned site located in Aurora that processes organic waste generated by city residents, Compost Colorado’s site is the only composting site to be located within Denver city limits. Company founder Vann Fussel hopes that this can serve as a model for “localized, distributed infrastructure” for organic waste processing (Fussel, Denverite).
 
The site is located outside Denver’s National Western Center, which hosts the annual National Western Stock Show. The in-vessel systems will process all organic waste generated in the Center as well as waste from customers of Compost Colorado’s food waste collection program. The collaboration with the National Western Center, as well as grant funding from the Colorado Department of Environmental and Public Health, helped fund the opening of the site.

 
Photo credit to Kevin J. Beaty, Denverite. You can read more about Compost Colorado’s new site here: https://denverite.com/2025/06/26/compost-colorado-site/