DENVER -- On average, Denver residents generate about 50 pounds of garbage every week. Most of it ends up in a landfill.

But some lucky homeowners have seen their garbage stream cut in half by a pilot compost collection program.

"We started saving food scraps, leaves and grass clippings last October," said neighbors Dana Miller and Jan Ramos.

Ramos told 7NEWS that the green compost carts provided by the city hold much more than just scraps and grass.

"It's amazing," she said. "They'll even take dryer lint and used facial tissues."

The city collects the organic material, consolidates it, then ships it out to A-1 Organics in Keenesburg, Colo, where it’s laid out in rows. There, work crews try to maintain the ideal composting temperature.

"They pretty much optimize the composting process," said Becky Goyton, Recycling Program administrator for the city of Denver. "What you have in about 90 days is a finished product which is pure compost and a great replacement for fertilizer."

Goyton said much of the finished product ends up being used by landscapers.

"It's better than going to a landfill," Goyton said, "because in a landfill, organic material breaks down anaerobically. When that happens, it creates methane gas and methane gas is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide."

"It's so simple," Miller said. "And it keeps so much out of a landfill. It's so healthy or the environment and then you have this beautiful soil that you can use to grow vegetables, herbs and all sorts of wonderful things."

Ramos said she's amazed at how much composting has cut down on her family's garbage stream.

"Even my husband's amazed because that's his job," Ramos said. "Every week he comes in and says, 'We hardly have any trash.' Sometimes we don't even put our trash barrel out for weeks because it's not full. It's not even close to full."

Neighbor Maria Woodside opted not to take part in the pilot program because she uses her own back yard composter.

"Every so often you spin it," Woodside said. "And you can see the water come out of it, and there's dirt that comes out of it."

Goyton said the city's pilot program complements back yard composting.

"We say, 'Hey, continue back yard composting. Just give us those materials you can't compost before pests move in. Materials like meat, bone, dairy products, grains. All that stuff we can collect in the green cart," Goyton said.

The pilot program runs through June.

Goyton told 7NEWS that the city hopes to get another grant to extend the program, which serves about 3,400 households.

She said eventually, they'd like to take the program city wide, but acknowledged than in order to do that, they would have to spend a great deal of money to buy new trucks.