Sustain Dane aims to make food scrap collection more accessible to community members in Madison, WI. In the summer of 2022 we began coordinating education, food scrap collection, and food waste hauling to Neighborhood Food Solutions’ nearby urban farm. Food scrap collection is open now at the Eastside Farmers’ Market for the 2024 market season. Southside Farmers’ Market starts May 21, 2024.
According to the Wisconsin DNR, our landfills consist of 14.5% food that would be traditionally edible, and 6% “food scraps” (like peels). This makes food the largest component of our waste stream. Bringing your food scraps to market collection sites is one way to positively impact the environment. The land and soil, community members, and agricultural system as a whole benefit from the nutrient recycling and food waste reduction of food scraps collection and composting.
Check out The City of Madison’s Plan. Use. Create. Scrap. resources about how together we can end food waste. Help us get the word out by sharing our program flyer.
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Bring your food scraps to Sustain Dane’s farmers’ market table on Tuesdays during market hours at the South Madison or Eastside market. Collection is happening from April to October. The program is free and open to the public for all households in Madison.
We can accept the following materials:
We cannot accept the following:
Please note that other composting programs may have different guidelines. We encourage you to review which foods can be composted with us before visiting the market. We will not be able to accept your food waste if it contains contamination of items that we cannot accept.
We appreciate your understanding and look forward to seeing you!
Please contact Samantha Worden, Sustain Dane’s Program Coordinator, at samantha@sustaindane.org or 608–285-2454.
All food scraps will be taken to Neighborhood Food Solutions (NFS) Farm which supports formerly incarcerated individuals in urban agriculture and teens in entrepreneurial and agricultural training. NFS provides farming opportunities for community members who may not normally have the access and resources to learn about and participate in farming. With this partnership, food scraps collected at the farmers markets will help to rebuild and create healthy soil at the farm to continue growing produce. Learn more here.
This project is made possible through funding from The City of Madison and partnership through Neighborhood Food Solutions (NFS) farm.
