Avon is preparing to implement a composting program as it pursues its own greenhouse gas goals and Eagle County’s, but the town is taking the process slowly to ensure it is best suited to residents and businesses.

Avon’s sustainability manager Charlotte Lin shared an overview of Avon’s proposed composting pilot program with the Town Council on Tuesday, March 11.

Why compost?

To meet Eagle County’s current climate action goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% from 2014 levels by 2050, the county has also set a goal to divert 80% of its organic waste from the landfill. To meet this goal, Avon needs to approximately double its current amount of composting, Lin said. 

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Around 30% of Avon’s waste that ends up in the landfill is organics, Lin said.

Methane, generated when food waste breaks down in landfills, “is at least 40 times stronger at trapping heat in the atmosphere, according to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency),” Lin said.

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Reducing the amount of waste that goes to the landfill is “the number five most impactful net zero strategy,” according to Eagle County greenhouse gas emissions reduction modeling, Lin said.

Composting also has “additional benefits, such as improving soil quality, reducing erosion and bringing us additional economic benefits such as financial returns and creating new jobs,” Lin said.

Expanding composting has been a town of Avon goal in 2024 and 2025. Avon residents are also highly interested in composting. Around 64% of residents indicated on Avon’s community survey conducted last year that they were interested in composting, and 7% of those people already compost independently.

“We know that waste programs are difficult to deploy, and it takes a long time for people to change their behavior and for communities to change their culture, so we stand to benefit if we start as early as possible,” Lin said.

What might Avon’s composting program look like?

Lin asked the Town Council six questions about the implementation of the town’s composting program. A few were easy to answer: The council decided to start with a pilot program, petition multiple haulers and to make composting incentive-based rather than mandatory.

Others were more complicated. It would cost Avon about $200,000 to implement a commercial composting program. Lin recommended starting a residential program with several drop sites around town at a cost to the town of around $30,000 annually.

“There is no wrong way to get started,” Lin said. “Any small step we take will be helpful to ultimately create that full implementation for a composting program in Avon.”

But most of the council members pushed for the commercial program, or a mix of commercial and residential, under the assumption that a composting program that focused on businesses would be most impactful.

Commercial composting is able to accept meat and bones as well as yard waste, which are more difficult or impossible to compost at home, according to Lin. Yard waste “would add significant weight to the organics diversion numbers,” she said.

There are already multiple commercial properties in Avon that compost by paying for their own haulers, including the town of Avon, City Market and the Eagle River Water & Sanitation District.

Mayor Tamra Underwood asked to see the numbers on what type of compost program would reduce greenhouse gas emissions the most. “If we’re going to adopt a pilot, start down this path of composting, I think we need to get the low hanging fruit to start, and it seems to me that it’s probably commercial,” Underwood said. 

In August 2023, the town of Eagle became the first Eagle County municipality to implement curbside composting for all residents. Aspen has a staggered composting ordinance, passed in February 2023, that currently bans restaurants and businesses from placing organic materials in their trash, a law that will later extend to residences.

Council member Gary Brooks is one of the 7% of Avon residents who already composts. He pays Vail Honeywagon quarterly to collect his compost, which he can dispose of at drop sites throughout the valley. “I really enjoy diverting the stream of food waste, at least from our house,” Brooks said.

“If we can learn from those mistakes (in implementing curbside composting) in Eagle, and understand what Aspen did on the commercial side, I’d be all in favor of advancing this program as much as we can,” Brooks said.

Avon already runs a highly successful pumpkin composting program every November. In 2023, the town diverted 4,200 pounds of pumpkin waste from the landfill. The town has historically been proactive about climate-oriented action, mandating universal recycling, banning Styrofoam takeout containers and banning retailers from providing customers with plastic bags.

“We have been on this vanguard for a long time, and I don’t think we should chicken out now,” Underwood said. 

When the town does implement a residential composting program, it will almost certainly be curbside based, not drop site. “That scale for residents makes sense. Then, you’re dealing with your own ick, and it’s getting hauled away,” Underwood said.

Underwood said that as a home composter herself, she does not see the drop sites working for Avon residents, as compost is too gross to expect people to cart around.

“Remote dumping of compost in our town is simply not feasible,” Underwood said. “I don’t even think it’s worth a try.”

Not only that, but residents already have access to a dump site-based composting system, like the one Brooks participates in through Vail Honeywagon, and only 7% of residents participate.

Underwood suggested going all-in on commercial.

“My hope would be that we can proceed down this path making a huge impact, and once we see the greenhouse gas numbers, we can convince our commercial entities that this is the way to go without having an ordinance,” Underwood said.