Over the winter, Eco-Cycle met with each market food vendor individually and found compostable alternatives for the items that previously generated trash at the market, including plates, bowls, cups – even straws and lids. The preferred products are made from corn, wheat, sugarcane, or other natural starches as an alternative to the plastic or plastic-coated paper serviceware that has been filling our landfills for decades (and staying there for centuries!).

Signs at each food vendor’s booth assure the public that everything’s compostable or recyclable, and similar signs at each Zero Waste Station instruct people on how to sort their discards. Eco-Cycle volunteers are available to help and staff are on hand at the Eco-Cycle compost tea stand (Saturdays only) ready to answer questions.

After enjoying a meal or a snack at the market, visitors sort out the recyclable containers as usual, but rather than putting what’s left in a bin marked “trash,” they’ll put it in a bin marked “compostables” (as seen at right). Visitors will be requested to hang on to any trash they may be bringing into the market, just like the “pack it in, pack it out” rule they practice whenever they visit the mountains or any open space area.

The Bigger Vision
Composting is a local solution to global pollution. Burying organic materials in a landfill generates methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to the global issue of climate change. Composting returns valuable nutrients to the natural cycle and helps local farmers restore depleted soils.

Eco-Cycle hopes to create a local cycle that turns our organic "waste" into products that enrich our depleted local soils. Residents then enjoy better local produce grown in the enriched soil they helped to create. This connection between the resident and their organic discards, the purity of those organic discards and the quality of the compost, and the quality of the compost and the quality of the food on their table--gives residents a whole new appreciation for the resource value of their waste stream.

Eco-Cycle would like to see all of Boulder's organic waste composted at a local facility and returned to local farmers as a high quality soil amendment. In particular, Eco-Cycle intends to emulate a highly successful Australian composting program and its connection between city residents, farmers, farmland, and the food they eat. Read the article on the Australian composting program, City to Soil.

The Boulder Farmers' Market is a microcosm of a Zero Waste world meant to demonstrate to the public how Zero Waste works in practice. Click here to learn more about Eco-Cycle's vision for Zero Waste for all of Boulder and Broomfield County.

What's next?
Eco-Cycle is planning a major campaign to distribute reusable shopping bags to Market customers to minimize take-home trash as well (but we always encourage you to bring your own reusable bags). We’re looking for sponsors for this idea – call us at 303-444-6634 if your company or organization is interested. (And don’t forget, you can always bring your clean and dry plastic bags to the CHaRM.)

More information
Eco-Cycle's business department can help your business get to Zero Waste. Click here for more information on our Zero Waste Services and a free consultation.

Eco-Cycle assists groups in Boulder and Broomfield Counties in making their events Zero Waste. Learn more about how we can help your group by contacting us at 303-444-6634.