Food Service Compliance
Compost and recycling are required for every food business in Denver. Melly's builds the compliance file and trains your line, so a rush never costs you a load.
Every Denver food business has to compost and recycle.
Twelve questions. Two minutes. Know exactly where your kitchen stands.
WHY THIS HITS YOU
Denver's Universal Recycling and Composting Ordinance, also called Waste No More, requires every food business in the city to compost and recycle.
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Restaurants, cafes, bars, grocers, and commissaries are all covered, and holding a Chapter 3 license is what puts you in scope.
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Most owners have not heard of it yet. That is exactly why kitchens get caught.
DOES THIS APPLY TO YOU
You have to comply if:
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Your business is inside Denver city limits
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You prepare, serve, or sell food: restaurants, cafes, bars, grocers, or commissaries
You are exempt if:
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Your location is in Glendale or another city outside Denver's limits
WHAT THE CITY REQUIRES
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Compost and recycling collection through a Denver-licensed hauler
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Labeled bins at every trash location, including trash rooms and common areas
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Compliant signage in English and Spanish
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Resident education
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Enough service capacity
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Records and annual reporting
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written Waste Diversion Plan on file
The hard part is speed.
Denver's compost stream is strict. Food scraps and yard trimmings only. No plastic, no paper, and no compostable serviceware, even the certified kind. That last one catches almost everybody, because operators buy compostable cups in good faith and the load gets rejected anyway.
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A busy kitchen moves fast. During a rush nobody stops to think about which bin a container goes in, and one wrong item can get the whole load rejected.The only permitted liner is a 3-gallon CMA-certified bag.
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That is exactly what Melly's Recycling signage and training are built for, right at the line where it matters.
HOW MELLY'S HANDLES IT
We map your kitchen and dish stations, then place bins where staff already work
We run your capacity math in gallons, the figure the ordinance actually uses
We install clear, bilingual signage built for the speed of a rush, front of house and back of house
We train your staff, including new hires and back of house, and keep the completion records
We write and file your Waste Diversion Plan
We keep your records and handle the monthly and annual reporting the city expects
If you qualify, we walk you through the city's compost reimbursement program
One location or ten, we have you.
Run a restaurant group or a food hall and we set up every location under one agreement, with the same signage and one point of contact. One conversation covers all of them.
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Single spot, you still get the full setup with no big-hauler runaround.
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Melly's Recycling is Denver family-owned, and we handle the paperwork so you can stay focused on service.