A1 Organics and the City & County of Denver Help Close the Compost Loop in Colorado

Composters are faced with turning increasing quantities of feedstocks into valuable compost and then quickly moving that product into end users’ hands. Partnerships and marketing tools are important to moving product, as A1 Organics’ experience shows.

With more than 44 years of experience with recycling organic materials, A1 Organics is a leader in organics recycling within Colorado. On an annual basis, A1 Organics diverts over 350,000 tons of organic material from sources ranging from organic recycling centers to municipal composting programs. As one example, A1 Organics has partnered with the City and County of Denver for the past decade as the contracted compost processor for the materials generated by Denver’s curbside Denver Composts program.

While the Denver Composts program started as a pilot program with just 1,000 participants back in 2008, it now has more than 18,000 residential customers and diverts more than 8,000 tons of food scraps and yard debris from Denver Households each year. The output of finished compost from this one source alone continues to grow significantly each year.

A1 Organics and Denver staff created a new mechanism for distribution - a bagged, STA Certified Compost product branded as “Denver’s Own EcoGro™ Compost” - to help ensure that finished compost made by A1 Organics from the materials delivered by the Denver Composts program can get back into the hands of Denver residents. These bags have the STA Certified Compost logo, clear instructions for use, listed benefits of compost and reminders about where the material came from that make customers feel good.

Since closing the compost loop is very important to the sustainability of the organic recycling industry and the municipal composting program alike, this message is central in the branding of Denver’s Own EcoGro™ Compost. While co-branding of the product (A1 Organics and Denver Pubic Works) has helped market the product, the STA Certified Compost label and use instruction have helped build trust and further identifying the uses.

To fill the retail niche, A1 and Denver also approached the Ace Hardware cooperative to serve as the retail partner for this collaborative endeavor. An exclusive retail partnership ensured traffic to Ace stores (50-plus stores carry the product), while the availability of a convenient and clearly-branded bagged compost product makes Denver’s compost accessible and visible to more residents. Ultimately, the program creates a greater end market for compost created from municipal, mixed food and yard debris feedstocks in the region. A1's partnerships with a municipality and retail chain of distributors and participation in the STA Certified Compost program spread the product message far and wide, and messaging was enriched by collaboration.

A key ingredient for success with this partnership has been the collaboration on design, labeling, promotion and merchandising. All three partners - A1 Organics, Ace Hardware and Denver Public Works - have broadcasted information through their independent and collective channels. To date, this includes joint press releases, newsletters, collection reminder messaging, social media campaigns and much more. Promotional posters were created for use in public events from giveaways, plant sales and International Compost Awareness Week celebrations. With technical support from A1 Organics, Denver Public Works also created a program digital landing page with all the FAQs on the program and continued education on STA Certified Compost and benefits of compost use.

This is what we like to call closing the compost loop, locally.