About Us
Denver Compost Collective is a small company with a reverence for the wholeness of life. Brought to life in 2015 as a community effort in the Montclair neighborhood in east Denver, we expanded to serve residents and community farms in more neighborhoods. The enterprise formally registered as an LLC on Earth Day 2017. DCC is the longest running compost collection service specifically for apartments in Denver.
Since day one, the high-quality, small batch compost we produce is never sold for profit. Rather, it’s donated to community farms in support of the critical role they play in providing healthy food access for communities in Denver.
Denver Compost Collective sets the bar for what composting in apartments should be, channeling our “waste” to the right places, in the right way, so communities in Denver thrive.
Shawn Hendrickson
Knee-deep in compost piles since 2010!
Early on, Shawn guided a student-driven effort to implement composting on Auraria campus in Denver. Then, upon receiving Master Composter Certification, he took his new certification overseas on a six month stint to be plenty humbled by the real world skills of small farmers in rural Northern India. Inspired by the power of community both at home and abroad, Shawn’s rallied a local effort in Denver around community-scaled composting to support a radically localized food system, developing those efforts into DCC as we know it today.
With Denver’s sights now set on city-wide composting, Shawn’s goal is to engage entire apartment communities, transform their “waste” into resources (compost), and channel those resources to community farms, so we can all “close the loop” and take back community power right here in Denver.
As a proud dad of two Wild Ones, Shawn’s vision is to demonstrate to them that “work” can be a space where every worker reclaims their power, as we regain our ancient connection to our natural world and all it provides.
Worker-Owner, Founder, Master Composter
Zac crandall
Advisor
Zac is our former accounts manager and compost operator. Born and raised in Minnesota, Zac has years of experience in project management, largely focused on safety, compliance, and training. Zac joined DCC to bring his skills (including bailing Shawn out during tax season) along with a long-standing connection the to mission of the company, to build up the communities that we serve.
In the News
Westword
Cheshire, Catie. “Denver’s New Compost Carts Are Rolling out Slowly.” Westword, Westword, 16 May 2024, www.westword.com/news/over-100000-denver-households-waiting-for-compost-carts-20714221.
Purple Turtle Co.
Sloan, HK. “The Importance of Composting.” Purple Turtle Co, 9 Nov. 2020, purpleturtleco.com/en-us/blogs/news/the-importance-of-composting.
Rocky Mountain PBS
“Denver Compost Collective Helps Grow Plants and the Community.” RMPBS, www.rmpbs.org/blogs/rocky-mountain-pbs/denver-compost-collective-helps-grow-plants-and-the-community/.
The Poor Prole’s Almanac
Development, PodBean. “Urban Community Composting with the Denver Compost Collective | the Poor Prole’s Almanac.” Poorprolesalmanac.podbean.com, poorprolesalmanac.podbean.com/e/urban-community-composting-with-the-denver-compost-collective/.