Tuesday, October 2, 2012

The Composting Secrets of Findlay Market


What do you have in common with an iconic Cincinnati landmark that serves 881,000 shoppers a year?

You both compost!

Findlay Market has been composting successfully on-site for the last three years and they were willing to share their secrets with you.

1. Compost your food scraps. Findlay Market vendors generate over 37 tons of food scraps a year but you likely have the same mix of fruits, vegetables, and grains, just in smaller quantity. Food scraps add nitrogen and moisture to the pile and act as a consistent additive to keep your pile humming.

2. Balance food scraps with high carbon material. Findlay Market likes to mix shredded waxed cardboard (not recyclable) with wood chips to help soak up all the moisture from the food scraps and add necessary carbon to the pile.

3. Make collection simple. Consider yourself lucky. Instead of having to educate over 100 vendors, you only have to educate a few family members or roommates. The secret is to make it simple. Findlay Market uses color-coded buckets to make composting and recycling just as easy as landfilling.

4. Turn frequently. Findlay Market turns their in-vessel composters daily but you only need to turn your pile weekly at the most.

5. Evaluate your waste to find new compostables. Now that they divert 68% of their waste stream to composting and recycling, Findlay Market is evaluating the remaining 32% to see what further reductions they can make. If you think about every item you throw away for a week, you’re sure to find new items you can divert to composting, recycling, or reuse.

A national trade publication, BioCycle, highlighted Findlay Market’s composting efforts in their September issue. See the full article here.


1 comment:

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