Durable Dish Program at the Montavilla Farmers Market

Reduce, Reuse
We believe in doing everything we can to make the amount of trash we produce each week as small as possible at the Montavilla Farmer’s Market. That is why we have traded in disposable plates, forks and cups with ones that we can wash and reuse. Did you know that our trash ends up in a landfill in eastern Oregon? And that even our compostable waste ends up near Seattle? We think that’s silly. Farmer’s markets are all about keeping it local. Let’s keep our dirty dishes local too.

Every Sunday All Year
Thanks to a grant from the City of Portland, Montavilla Farmers Market pioneered the durable dish program last season--the first ever at an outdoor farmers market. During 15 market weeks of 2009 when we piloted the program, we were able to keep the equivalent of 1,796 paper plates, paper boats & plastic clamshells; 393 plastic cups & lids; and 2,101 plastic forks out of the waste stream! For 2010, you can experience durable dish all 21 weeks of our season. We expect to keep more than 3,000 plates, 500 cups and 3,500 forks out of the waste stream this year.

Interested in Helping?
We’d love to have your support! The Durable Dish program is entirely volunteer driven. We need many willing hands to make it run and ensure those plastic forks don't come back! If you are interested in making this sustainability happen each market week (and have fun at the same time), email Kristin at durabledish@montavillamarket.org Click here (PDF) for more information.

We would like to extend a very special thanks to Thatcher’s Restaurant at 7906 SE Stark for making their commercial dishwasher available to us. Without Thatchers, we wouldn't be able to clean all those dishes!

ThatchersLounge.com 7906 SE Stark Street Portland, OR 97215 503-254-2918

Funded by a grant from the City of Portland Bureau of Planning & Sustainability.

Resources:
City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability
Master Recycler Program