We applaud the shoppers who, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, have stormed the Portland Farmers Market every Saturday since it opened March 8. For the rest of us, farmers market season starts in May, when dozens of markets around the city pop up like so many tiny sprouts in our backyard gardens. The party starts this Saturday in the Hollywood District, continues Sunday in the King neighborhood of Northeast Portland, heads downtown to Southwest Salmon and Main on Wednesday, bounces to Buckman on Thursday and out to Beaverton on May 8.
Don’t even think about tossing that empty latte cup in a garbage can near the Saturday Portland Farmers Market at Portland State University. Plywood blocks the openings and a sign directs marketgoers to an “EverGreen Station” for composting, recycling and if all else fails — trashing
“A lot of manufacturers are making things that don’t make it pass our system but believe that even if it doesn’t get composted . . . it’s better in the landfill than plastic,” he said. If you think about tossing that empty latte cup in a garbage can, think again, a team of volunteers will be picked up after all of the litterers.
But that doesn’t make a lot of sense since anything biodegradable in the landfill just eventually turns into the potent greenhouse gas, methane. Peter Spendelow, a solid waste policy analyst for DEQ feels strongly about this: something marked “compostable” is only environmentally friendly if it’s actually composted.