The Small City That Became The Composting Capital Of A Nation

The Small City That Became The Composting Capital Of A Nation

The Small City That Became The Composting Capital Of A Nation On a blue-skied summer morning, Place Pasteur in the historic center of Besançon is abuzz with colorful market stalls selling trinkets and antiques. But it’s also here that residents bring a different kind of valuable good every weekday, to give away for free. As time ticks by, individuals and families stroll over to a trash can with a green lid at one end of the square, open it and empty containers brought from home filled with banana skins, egg shells, carrot peel, zucchini heads, parsley stalks and more. “I tried setting up composting in my building, but it was difficult. I always ended up having to do all the work,” says Alex, a resident who is here to drop off food scraps with his young daughter. That circular system is just one cog in the pioneering efforts of France’s composting capital, which has been fighting for nearly two decades to cut waste. It doesn’t make financial or ecological sense to throw all our vastly dif…