Trash

Being a market vendor has given me a new perspective on trash. The health department requires that all food vendors keep a lined trash can in their booths, and that's a reasonable request because we need to have a place to put the waste that we generate. The market managers require that we take our trash away from the market when we leave, and that's a reasonable request because there are a lot of vendors generating a lot of trash, and someone has to haul it away.

As a prepared food vendor, my business generates more trash than most other booths because of the "disposable" plates and forks that we use. Some of the stuff is compostable, but we're still left with the issue of who has to haul away the compost. Prepared food vendors pay higher fees because of the waste we generate, but I still try to be mindful of it. The market puts out trash cans to collect customer trash, but space is still limited.

I often see customers confused about what to do with their trash. Market trash cans are available, but they're often 20 or 30 feet away. I try to keep the trash can in my booth out of customers' reach to limit the amount of trash I have to haul back to my kitchen with me, but several times a day someone will try to reach over the stove to get to the trash. I pay a lot of money in liability insurance, and it upsets me when people get too close to the stoves. I've seen people duck under the bright read "caution" tape that I use to keep customers away from the stoves, and come into the booth to put things in the trash can. Sometimes people just try to hand me their trash while I'm cooking.

I never thought so much about trash until I started doing this work. Although it makes me ornery when someone tries to hand me trash, I might have done the same before my vending days. I suppose this assumption of convenience is part of the same mind set that allows us to use "disposable" plates and forks in the first place. I don't have a good answer, but I do have some good questions.