Serving the community since 1926
WEEK OF OCTOBER 17, 2024
VOLUME 97 | ISSUE 46
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City compost projects prioritize quality overspeed Colorado student
enrollment grows at most public four-year universities, despite FAFSA issues
BY JASON GONZALES CHALKBEAT COLORADO
two initiatives aim high, but progress has lagged. Composted soil saves water, sequesters carbon, is more productive, and reduces landfill waste and methane emissions, Call said. But making composting accessible, affordable and effective is a complex strategy of infrastructure, education, regulations and investment for cities.
Enrollment at nearly all of Colorado’s four-year universities is up, despite delays and glitches this year that made it harder for students to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. It’s an outcome that defies the widespread fear that the FAFSA snafus would lead to lower college enrollment, especially among students from low-income families. Instead, the all-hands-on-deck response that many high schools and universities took to helping students fill out the FAFSA in this troubled year seems to have paid off. “We were not going to just leave our students hanging,” said Federico Rangel, who works at Denver’s West High School as a Denver Scholarship Foundation adviser. “We were going to do what we needed to do to make sure students could access their goals and their potential.” Only about 42% of high school seniors statewide completed the FAFSA this year, which is about 3,000 fewer students than last year. But most of Colorado’s 13 public universities, including the University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado State University System’s three schools, Metropolitan State University of Denver, and Colorado Mesa University, enrolled more students than last year. Enrollment is also up among students eligible for federal Pell grants, which provide free money for college for students from low-income families. Federal changes raised the Pell grant income limits which allowed more students to qualify.
SEE COMPOST, P6
SEE ENROLLMENT, P4
Compost, recycling and trash bins lined up in Villa Park on Sept. 5.
PHOTO BY NATALIE KERR
for people experiencing in Denver, while the city’s Office of With businesses confused less chronic hunger and a waste of the Climate Action, Sustainability and resources that grew it in the first Resiliency (CASR) is working to and residents anxious, place. And it misses an opportunity meet the goals outlined in the 2022 to generate soil-enriching compost. voter-approved Waste No More cityputs education and The waste is tragic, said Ryan J. ordinance intended to bring comCall, campaigns coordinator at posting to apartment complexes, Eco-cycle, a Boulder nonprofit. restaurants and grocery stores. The equity first BY NATALIE KERR SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
Colorado generated 1.5 billion tons of surplus food in 2022, while the average American eats roughly 1 ton of food per year. Most of that excess, 62%, came from residences; the other 25% from restaurants and food retailers. Food sent to a landfill means
Eco-cycle collaborated with Closed Loop Partners, an investment firm focused on the circular economy, to develop a blueprint for municipalities that compost. The blueprint details best practices for cities like Denver to divert the majority of food waste from landfills. Currently, curbside composting for single-family homes is expanding to a fourth waste district
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DENVERHERALD.NET • A PUBLICATION OF COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
A HELLUVA YEAR
Mines alums celebrate school’s 150th year P10