Food waste disposal company recently opened its latest facility and headquarters and expects to divert more than 700 tons of waste annually. Chris Wood, editor and publisher of BizWest, joined KUNC鈥檚 Nikole Robinson Carroll to discuss the company and its strategies.
鈥淚t's a public benefit corporation, meaning that it's a corporation that's created to generate a positive social and public good,鈥� Wood told KUNC. 鈥淩ight now, they offer residential curbside pickup of food waste in Fort Collins and Timnath, and they also offer commercial pickup in Wellington, Windsor and Loveland. They have residential drop off sites in Loveland and Windsor and Fort Collins.鈥�
The company is an example of community composting, which the as a model that sources organic materials locally, engages the community in the composting process and uses the compost produced in local soils. Compost Queen collects and processes materials at four facilities. The new one is located on North College Avenue in Fort Collins on a family farm.
鈥淚t's called ,鈥� Wood said. 鈥淭he compost that is created is actually , and it (Compost Queen) has similar partnerships in place at its .鈥�
The Compost Queen website says farmers can access a "managed composting process" that "remediates pathogens and unwanted seeds to produce a high quality soil amendment and fertilizer."
Residential customers can also obtain compost for their home gardens from Compost Queen.
"Your food scraps go to improving local soils and growing high quality crops right where you live," the company's page says. "The best part? You get access to high quality food scrap compost."
Compost Queen was launched in 2018 by Jamie Blanchard-Poling. The service picks up food waste from homes, taking it to their facilities and composting it. But they're very particular about what they collect. No compostable bags, no plastic, no bag ties or raw meats, for example.
鈥淎nd if they find any contaminants, by the way, then the whole bin must go to the landfill,鈥� Wood told KUNC.
Compost Queen recently won a grant from the Front Range Waste Diversion Program. Now, it's using some advanced composting technology from a company called . It's called covered . It essentially allows for rapid composting at high temperatures while controlling odors and eliminating possible pathogens in food waste.
More companies are now offering curbside food waste pickup along the Front Range.
鈥淪ome cities contract for curbside pickup with a waste company,鈥� Wood said. 鈥淪ome cities such as Boulder even require composting bins at businesses.鈥�
A lot of that waste is composted by , a large volume composter of organic waste for the region, headquartered in Eaton.
鈥淏ut the problem is very big," Wood said, "and smaller scale operations such as Compost Queen are being encouraged, including through recent changes in that exempt small quantity facilities from requirements such as environmental impact statements.鈥�
The estimates .
