Food Scrap Drop Off Program FAQs

Instead of becoming waste in a landfill, your food scraps return to the earth as nutrients that help grow the next generation of food.  

Composting keeps food scraps out of the landfill, where they break down without oxygen and create methane—a harmful greenhouse gas. When we compost instead, food breaks down with oxygen, which cuts emissions and turns scraps into something useful: healthy, nutrient-rich compost. 

Composting also benefits our community in several important ways: 

• It helps build healthier soils. 
Finished compost adds nutrients back into our local landscapes, helping gardens, trees, and plants grow stronger. It also improves soil so it can hold more water, making our neighborhoods more drought-resilient. 

• It helps repair damaged ecosystems. 
Compost can help restore tired or polluted soils, which supports healthier parks, green spaces, and urban forests. 

• It keeps carbon where it belongs. 
Food scraps contain carbon. When we compost, that carbon gets stored in the soil—instead of being released into the atmosphere. This makes composting one of the simplest, most effective actions a community can take to reduce its carbon footprint. 

All Lakewood households (your address is verified during signup).

If you're already a CoCo subscriber—thank you for leading the way! Because CoCo didn’t originally collect customer addresses, they don’t yet know which current subscribers live in Lakewood. Once the program launches, Lakewood residents can simply contact CoCo to update their account. CoCo will then apply the $5/month Lakewood rate and prorate it from the program start date.

CoCo services the drop sites and transports material to their Denver commercial compost facility, where it is processed in an in-vessel composter into finished compost.  The circular compost loop is complete when the compost is used in local gardens, farms, and landscapes. Truly circular! 

This is what makes composting a circular process: a common waste product is turned into a resource and never reaches the landfill—it stays in the loop. Your food scraps become compost → the compost nourishes the soil → the soil grows new plants and food → and those scraps are composted again, continuing the cycle. 

Mid-January 2026 (exact launch date coming soon).

Carts are sealed, serviced frequently and swapped with freshly cleaned ones. Most residents report dramatically less trash odor at home.

No—this program is for food scraps only. Lakewood provides for yard waste collection separately as yard waste will not fit in these tiny carts. 

Visit Composting Resources - City of Lakewood, CO for more information on properly composting yard waste.  

Any sealed container works. The City provides a free kitchen caddy at workshops if you need one. 

Keep your container somewhere easy to reach while you cook—on the counter, under the sink, or near your garbage and recycling—so composting is just as easy as throwing something away. You can also store scraps in the refrigerator or freezer to slow decomposition while still allowing them to break down easily during composting. 

It’s recommended to empty your container at least once a week, and more often in hot summer months. If you notice pests or odors, it’s usually an easy fix: empty and rinse it more frequently, or store scraps in the fridge or freezer. 

If you notice any issues at a drop site, please report them directly to CoCo, as they maintain and service the sites. The City contracts with CoCo and can only pass concerns along, so it’s fastest to skip the middleperson and contact CoCo directly.