MUSKEGON, MI – A new composting program hosted at the Muskegon Farmers Market has already saved one ton of food waste from going to the landfill after one month in operation.
Green Michigan is a Muskegon-based, West Michigan nonprofit that provides sustainability education and programming.
For the last month, Director Angela Fox has been running a weekly compost program at the downtown Muskegon farmers market, allowing people to drop off their food scraps for a fee.
“Out of all the wicked problems related to sustainability, food waste is one of the easier problems to solve,” Fox said, mentioning more complex environmental problems like air and water quality.
Fox has a stand under a green umbrella each week at the center of the farmers market where people drop off food waste: food scraps including dairy, meat and bones.
“We’re allowing a pathway for residents to not landfill food,” Fox said. “We’re hoping this is a stepping stone to more sustainability efforts.”
Green Michigan Director Angela Fox, right, holds open a composting bin for a participant dumping food waste at the Muskegon Farmers Market.Photo provided to MLive by Angela Fox
The booth is open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. The farmer’s market is located at 242 W. Western Ave.
People drop off their food scraps in a variety of containers; five-gallon buckets, paper bags and compostable bags.
“We don’t care if it’s mixed together, we don’t care if it smells,” Fox said. “Sometimes you’re going to get creepy crawlies – we don’t care about that either.
“However you get it to us is however you get it to us.”
Except plastic.
Fox said her steadfast rule is “no plastic,” which can show up mixed in people’s food scraps and creates more labor for the recycling process.
Accepted items include:
FruitsVegetables Meats BonesDairyPersonal care products (cotton swabs, toilet paper, paper towel, face tissue)Yard wasteBPI-certified dinnerwareLeftoversPaper productsCoffee and tea grounds
Unaccepted items include:
Plastic and produce bagsPet wasteNon-certified dinnerwareTea bagsProduce stickers
In a previous job, Fox said she started a free composting program for the community in Royal Oak and said the biggest obstacle was contamination – people putting things in the bins that are not compostable, like plastic.
In that, she saw a small fee as a way of avoiding some of that neglect.
“When you attach money, it adds value,” Fox said. “People see the value and do take it seriously.”
Fox said she is paying out of pocket for all supplies and to pay the composting company, Organacycle, for four months – a pilot test of the program.
“As long as we can cover our costs by the end of those four months, and if I can have one Saturday off a month, then maybe we can make it a permanent addition to the market,” Fox said, adding that it costs about $1,000 per month to operate.
Fox has had three volunteers sign up so far and is welcoming more. Anyone 12 and older can sign up.
Volunteers who work a three-hour shift get free composting for the month.
It costs $3 for a one-time drop off of up to two five-gallon buckets worth of food waste.
For $10 a month, people can drop off as many times as they want, which Fox said has been utilized by people who come to the farmers market every week.
Green Michigan has applied for grants through the Muskegon Community Foundation and the state.
“I’m hoping to get funding to make this a free program or, at least. reduce the cost,” Fox said.
From the people she’s spoken to, Fox said not many are signed up for the city’s free recycling program.
“There just hasn’t been the demand or it’s not simple enough for people to sign up,” Fox said.
However, Fox has found a lot of “backyard composters” in Muskegon.
“That is a good surprise,” Fox said. “Our program can supplement that with the things they can’t put in their pile – meat, dairy, bones.”
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