Edibles Advocate Alliance AND Buy Local Connecticut: Shared Harvest is partnering with the CT Department of Environmental Protection's CT Material Trader to steward CT’s future by keeping food and other materials out of the waste stream. 

Staggering are the statistics. 

In Connecticut, according to data reports sent to the DEP, we only recycle an average of 1.35 pounds of waste per person, per day.  Additionally, we only grasscycled and composted 23.28 pounds per person, per year.  To put that into perspective, the United States sends approximately 230 million tons of stuff to the garbage bin – and on average, we generate 4.6 pounds of garbage per person per day. 

In Connecticut, that means every person sends 3.2 pounds of goo into the trash on a daily basis.  There are estimates that indicate that we could reuse and recycle more than 70% of what we send out as garbage every day.  This would reduce the demand on virgin sources of these materials and eliminate potentially severe environmental, economic, and public health problems such as ground and water contamination and air pollution.

Food waste includes uneaten portions of meals and trimmings from food preparation activities in kitchens, restaurants, and cafeterias.  Most surprisingly?  Nationally, food waste is the 3^rd LARGEST component of generated waste by weight.  According to a 2009 CT Solid Waste Composition and Characterization Study, 321,481 tons of food waste was disposed in CT. 

Ummmm . . . . much of that 642,962,000 pounds could have been diverted through composting, bartering, and donations to food insecure populations through portals such as Shared Harvest.

In Connecticut, it costs about $68 to dispose of each ton of garbage

Garbage disposal is one of the most consumer-dependant and most easily modified sections of each of our town and municipal budgets.  The reduction in tonnage sent to landfills will save hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, per city/town/municipality. 

In the era of huge budget shortfalls, school cuts, disappearing public services, and the temporary closing of state agencies, we haven’t yet made the connection that composting, recycling, materials trading, and food trading can save your community money.  Valuable money.  Money that can keep your schools open.  Money that  can be kept in your municipality for improvements, upgrades, value-added services. 

In short, someone has to pay for garbage.  Why not spend a few extra minutes of your time to compost, grasscycle, trade and reuse materials to reduce the amount of stuff you throw away as garbage -- instead of using your tax dollars to dispose of it?  

Connecticut Leads the Nation in Commodity Reuse

Want to reduce your garbage load?  Here are two options:

Connecticut Material Trader

The Connecticut Material Trader (CMT) is a FREE online materials reuse network offered by the CT Department of Environmental Protection. It was conceived to help assists businesses, organizations, institutions, and municipalities in Connecticut find, sell, trade, or give away useful used or surplus materials that would otherwise be disposed as trash.  Think of it as a dating service that matches usable goods with those who want them.

CMT members align corporate and environmental objectives by:

• reducing their environmental footprint,
• saving money,
• and providing fellow CMT members and others in need of low-to-no cost supplies, furniture, and equipment with the materials they need.

A wide variety of materials are accepted for posting on the exchange including building materials, office furniture/equipment, landscapting/nursery supplies, electronics, shipping containers, food residuals, and more.

If you are a CT business, organization, institution, or municipality – please consider joining CMT.  More members mean more listings, and that means more usable items diverted from the waste stream! The actual exchange transactions are carried out directly between the interested parties.

Learn more about how the CT Material Trader works!

Buy Local Connecticut:  Shared Harvest

Shared Harvest CT is a website provided by the Edibles Advocate Alliance that focuses on locally produced foods in a buy/sell/trade/barter/donate platform!  Shared Harvest CT is a Local Food Web which builds a Sustainable Community Food System and allows consumers to find locally produced food in another (NON-farm market) venue, provide producers with a separate sales venue, and allow for the donation of food to those in need.  Shared Harvest CT is a state-wide food distribution system allowing farmers, producers, and consumers to connect directly over the internet - in ONE interactive space and platform. 

Shared Harvest CT is an online farmer's market and food-bank rolled into one.  Food that might potentially go to waste can also be listed for donation to participating charities and food banks.

Shared Harvest CT works like an INSTANT ONLINE SELLING classified ad section and is available for FREE to all producers, farmers, and consumers.  

Learn more about how Buy Local Connecticut:  Shared Harvest works!

Buy Local Connecticut! 

Trade Local Connecticut!