The City of Madison has announced that they have collected over 30,000 pounds of food scraps composted at Farmers' Markets in 2025, closing in on its 2025 goal of 40,000 pounds composted. The city's website illustrates 40,000 pounds as 20 adult bison, each weighing an average of two tons.
Food scraps are leftover pieces of food that can be repurposed and composted, crucially avoiding food waste in landfills. According to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources website, food scraps and food waste are the largest contributors to Wisconsin landfills.
The goal is specifically to collect 40,000 pounds of food scraps at designated Farmer's Market Drop Off sites, according to the City of Madison website. The website explains there are three farmers' markets where participants can drop off food scraps: the Madison Eastside Farmers' Market, the Westside Community Market, and the South Madison Farmers' Market.
These markets are still collecting scraps, with the Eastside and South Madison markets open for drop off until Oct. 28th, and the Westside Community Market open for drop off until Nov. 1. Additional information on drop off can be found on the City of Madison's website.
However, not all food can be used as food scraps. For example, raw vegetables and fruits, eggshells and corn cobs can be collected, but meat, dairy and baked goods cannot, according to the City of Madison's guide.
Bryan Johnson, the Recycling Coordinator and Public Information Officer for the City of Madison, has seen sustainable growth for the City of Madison's recycling and food scrap programs, as this particular farmers' market program nears the end of its fourth year.
"Every year we've gotten a little bit bigger, we've gotten more scraps, we've taught more people what the right things are; people are going to the markets," Johnson said.
Roxanne Wienkes, Deputy Director of Dane County Waste and Renewables, and Delaney Gobster, Business Development and Outreach Coordinator at Dane County Waste and Renewables, also spoke about Dane County's food waste drop-off kiosk program in a press release.
The Dane County food waste drop-off kiosk program shares the same goals as the City of Madison's farmers' market program, but functions at a different stage of the food collection process.
"We operate as the destination, the place where people bring materials for disposal or recycling," said Gobster.
The Dane County kiosk program was modeled after the success of the City of Madison's farmers' market kiosk program, according to Wienkes.
The Dane County landfill has been successful enough to near its capacity, and work to permit a new landfill and sustainability campus is beginning, Wienkes explained.
In addition to the forthcoming Dane County sustainability campus' education center, the Madison operates the Dane County Trash Lab. This is a mobile exhibition with interactive stations and videos designed to educate and inspire us to create less trash and rethink our relationship with waste, according to its website.
The Dane County landfill has seen sizable growth, despite being younger than the City of Madison's Farmers' Market program, according to Wienkes.
"For food scraps, we've been operating for three months; between the first two months, we pretty much doubled our collections," Wienkes said. "In June, we did about 2.58 tons, and in July, we did 5.3 tons."
The City of Madison's farmers' market program is seeing growth as well, as increased hours have led to an increase in food scraps.
The food scrap program has seen an increase in participation with each year it has operated, according to Johnson.
"Last year we got 31,000 pounds, this year we added more time at our Westside market hours, so we looked at what we could reasonably get with more hours and landed on 40,000," Johnson said.
Madison has surpassed last year's total of 31,000 pounds, with the most recent data placing the collection at 33,113.2 pounds of food scraps, according to the tracker on the city's website.
Alongside donating food scraps at these farmers' markets, Wienkes, Gobster and Johnson all emphasized preventing food from becoming waste as a vital step in reducing overall food waste.
"Besides composting their food scraps, a lot of action that takes place before you're at disposal is prevention," Gobster said. "That means knowing what your meal plan is, having proper food storage, things of that nature. Also getting in touch with your local food distribution scene with farmers and farmers' markets."
Food waste is especially dangerous to Wisconsin, as according to the Department of Natural Resources' webpage, 20% of trash going to Wisconsin landfills is food. The Department of Natural Resources concluded that three-quarters of that trash could have been eaten or otherwise composted.
According to Johnson, there is value in each person doing their part to combat food waste. Individuals taking action against food waste adds up, and the success of the City of Madison's farmers' market and Dane County kiosk sustainability programs is a step towards a more sustainable Wisconsin.
"If all of us did a little bit better, it would make a difference," Johnson said.