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City of Madison

Food Scraps Recycling Drop-off Returns to Eastside Farmers’ Market on April 29, 2025

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Free food scraps recycling drop-off will be back this year at the Eastside Farmer’s Market.

The first date food scraps will be accepted is Tuesday, April 29, 2025.

Look for the free food scraps drop-off tent at the market to drop off your coffee grounds, egg shells, and appropriate vegetable and fruit scraps so they can be composted.

Eastside Farmers’ Market Details

You will find the Eastside Farmers’ Market at 202 South Ingersoll Street at McPike Park.  The market is right off the Capital City Trail, and there is plenty of free street parking nearby.

Food scraps drop-off will be available from 4:00pm until 7:00pm on Tuesday evenings.

The appropriate scraps will be accepted every Tuesday starting on April 29, 2025 and ending on October 28, 2025.

What food scraps can you bring to the market?

You can bring coffee grounds, eggshells, raw fruits, raw vegetables, and other similar scraps.

Do not bring meat, bones, compostable plastics, paper products, grease, dairy products (including cheese), and other prepared foods, such as baked goods.

Read more about what you can, and cannot, bring in for composting to the food scraps drop-off sites on the Streets Division’s Food Scraps website.

Staff at the food scraps drop-off tent will be there to help you, too, if you have any questions.

Will there be other food scraps drop-off sites?

Yes!

Just like last year, there will be three farmers' market locations for food scraps composting.  They begin collection at slightly different times.

Details about all three of the market sites, including when they open, can be found on our food scraps website.

Also, new for this year, the Dane County Department of Waste and Renewables, is starting a free food scraps drop off program at a few locations around the county, and partnering with some commercial entities for food scraps collection.  More details about the Dane County food scraps program can be found on their website.

More Food Scraps Information

Additional information about food waste prevention, food donation, and food scraps composting can be found at www.cityofmadison.com/FoodScraps.

What happens when you drop off food scraps at a City of Madison market site?

  • Food scraps collected for composting. This is very colorful. Red cauliflower. Green watermelon rinds. Broccoli. Oranges and carrots.

    The food scraps...

  • Emptying a plastic bag of apple pieces into the food scraps collection bucket at the Westside Community Market. The bag does not go into the food scraps. The bag goes into the trash.

    ...that you drop off at a market site...

  • A worker wearing bright yellow-green jacket dumping a tote full of vegetables, fruits, and egg shells at a composting site. In the background, a rainbow is visible.
    Image credit: Jeanne Welch - Sustain Dane

    ...are taken to a local urban farm to be composted and...

    Image credit: Jeanne Welch - Sustain Dane

  • South Madison Farmers' Market. Robert Pierce, the Neighborhood Food Solutions farmer, is in the the foreground. He is standing behind the table of his farmstand.

    ...then the what your scraps helped grow become available at the South Madison Farmers' Market. 

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