A Waste Wise Market

The Ferry Plaza Farmers Market generates community, delicious food, and an enormous amount of discarded material. On a typical summer Saturday in 2007, more than one hundred 45-gallon garbage bags destined for the landfill were loaded with food scraps, plastic water bottles, to-go coffee cups, paper plates, soda cans, packaging and other discarded items. And that’s just at the market; it doesn’t include packaging and plastic bags often thrown away at home. In 2007, our sellers distributed more than 1,000,000. plastic bags, most of which were not ultimately reused or recycled.

Starting on Earth Day, 2008, more than 90% of this rubbish changed course through the addition of composting and recycling collection at the market. Our Waste Wise initiative is a comprehensive waste reduction program and education campaign, featuring custom-made Waste Wise stations, informational displays, and a goal to phase out the use of plastic bags in the farmers’ market in 2009. Click here to read the press release >

Funding for the coordination, infrastructure and launch of our Waste Wise initiative was provided by the Richard and Rhoda Goldman fund. Special thanks to Janice Sitton of Good Green Graces for her assistance in helping us create a less wasteful and more resourceful farmers' market.