Truro Farmers' Market has a little bit of everything, but not much garbage

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The glass mugs at Carole Downey's table in the Truro Farmers' Market are stacked as high as the baked goods and coffee beans.

At least a quarter of her customers each Saturday take their coffee in a mug, passing on the option of a paper cup, said Downey.

"People really care about what they're using," she said.

"It saves significantly, and we pass that savings on to our customers, so it's less for a coffee in a mug."

Downey's table is not the exception, but rather the norm at this market in the hub of Nova Scotia.

All around the former fire department and now year-round market, vendors are taking steps to reduce or do away with disposable containers and utensils.

Instead, they offer real cutlery, plates and bowls for those eating in, and compostable containers and less packaging for those taking out.

Market manager Margaret Ells Congdon said the initiative started about a year agoas the market was looking to be more environmentally sustainable. They work with vendors to help them make that switch.

"The challenge is to be able to source cost-effective materials that can replace the plastics and styrofoams," she said.

"We see the environmental impacts of everything that people do. So it's part of the whole cycle to be able to reduce and eliminate as much of the waste that we can and direct it away from the landfill."

To that end, the market has done away with garbage cans. There is now one sorting section for waste in a corner of the market, where people can leave dirty dishes, get a reusable bag and separate compost from recyclables and materials destined for the landfill.

"We switched this from saying 'garbage' to 'landfill' because people don't want to put things in the landfill," Ells Congdon said of the bin in the sorting station.

The results speak for themselves. Since making the switch, the market has gone from putting out up to 12 bags of garbage each week to just one, while the output of compost and recyclables have each shot up.

At Prabahar Ravi Chandran's station, which sells Indian food, customers get actual silverware and paper straws, along with real plates.

"I really think our customers enjoy them," he said. "No one complains, so I'm happy about that."

The only challenge with the switch from plastic has been the additional time to do the dishes at the end of the day, he said.

While finding new packaging options has been a little trickier for produce vendor Glen Henderson, where possible he's made changes, too.

He encourages customers to return plastic bags and other reusable packing. Those who do get entered into a monthly draw for a basket of apples.

"It's working really well," said Henderson.

"Pretty near 50 per cent of them come back, I would say."

Ells Congdon said market officials and volunteers would continue with the effort to find ways to make the market and its vendors even more sustainable.

"You can just see it every week, what an impact it's making."

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