Mountain Village to offer community-wide composting October 30-November 30
The Town of Mountain Village presents a free opportunity to compost pumpkins and other compostable materials after Halloween October 30-November 30 (or until containers are full).
This free composting event is presented in partnership with the Town of Telluride and San Miguel County and the community at large is invited to bring pumpkins (free of all non-compostable decorative items) and other household waste (yard waste, garden clippings, kitchen food scraps and more. Restaurants and businesses are also encouraged to participate as well.
A composting container will be placed near the entrance to the Gondola Parking Garage adjacent to the Village Market and Mountain Village Town Hall. A full list of accepted material can be found online at bit.ly/MVPumpkinComposting.
“Composting is a wonderful and easy opportunity to decrease your carbon footprint, especially after Halloween, and as folks are doing fall clean-up efforts around the home,” said Economic Development and Sustainability Director J.D. Wise.
Over 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkins are sent to the landfill each year. In landfills, pumpkins decompose without exposure to oxygen which causes methane to be released. Methane is a greenhouse gas that is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. When pumpkins are composted properly, oxygen is present during the process, preventing methane from being created.
Pumpkins are 90 percent water and contain valuable nutrients. Instead of wasting these resources and the resources used to grow pumpkins (e.g., energy and water) in a landfill, composting returns these nutrients to the earth.
The Town of Mountain Village will be weighing the compost collected after the event to understand the amount of food waste diverted from the landfill and to calculate the associated greenhouse gas emissions avoided and water rescued.
To learn more about what can be composted please visit bit.ly/MVPumpkinComposting.
