The DTR Farmers Market started an initiative to reduce waste in 2018 by not only having recycling present but a compost system as well through a partnership with Food Loops, a local company that makes fertilizers from food waste. We wish to continue these efforts at our market by reducing as much plastic as possible, better controlled recycling system and achieve the goal of being able to claim that we are a zero waste market and venue in 2020. What is zero waste?

The simple answer: We aim to send nothing to a landfill. We reduce what we need, reuse as much as we can, send little to be recycled, and compost what we cannot.

The less simple answer: It's really about redefining the system. We currently live in a linear economy where we take resources from the earth and then dump them in a giant hole in the ground. The goal of zero waste is to move to a circular economy where we write trash out of existence. The circular economy mimics nature in that there is no trash in nature. Instead of discarding resources, we create a system where all resources can be resumed fully back into the system.

Money raised will help cover cost of supplies to bring this initiative to the next level and to other events we host in downtown Rogers.

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

— Dr. Seuss, The Lorax