In the perfect world of a farmer's market, the farmer picks and puts his crops into a reusable box and uses foot power to carry the goods to the marketplace. There, the customer buys the food, puts it into a string bag, walks home, cooks and eats it all.

Zero waste.

With about 10 regular vendors in the city's Eastern Market, manager Fritz Schroeder can envision a nearly zero waste situation.

"We are a producer's market," he said. "Every vendor (brings his or her) own product — vegetables, herbs, flowers, prepared food, crafts. There is a direct connection from the patron to the grower and the producer."

At North Shippen and East King streets, Eastern Market opened for its second season in June.

Last year, in its first season of the 21st-century, Schroeder saw — almost to his surprise — people biking and walking from all over the city, coming to market in this southeast neighborhood. In the continual process of greening the market, he provided recycle and trash bins last year and is considering ways to compost paper and food waste this year.

"These vendors are startup businesspeople. The difference between a plastic utensil and one that is compostable might be four cents each spoon. We can use all the help we can get from the purchasers who need to question, demand or ask us how the product is created and eventually disposed," he said.

Yet last year he saw people bringing their own bags and coffee mugs to shop. The incentive was initiated by vendor Etayehu Zenebe, whose catering business, Gursha, serves hot organic food served with a large, soft bread called injera. In her native Ethiopia, Zenebe explained, injera is used to scoop up the rest of the meal and is eaten along with the food.

"What I am trying to do, instead of giving people Styrofoam, I ask them to bring their own containers.

"When they bring their own containers I give them one injera free, for encouragement," she said.

"Within two weeks people were bringing their own containers. They brought extras, too, but to be on the safe side I don't take used containers because of the sanitation matters."

Zenebe went on to explain that it is very customary for people to eat with their hands in Ethiopia. "When you use no utensils, I have been told, it is a natural process, and you don't gobble your food.

"You cut. You smell. You chew. The slower you eat the better you are helping your digestion system, or so I have been told by my ancestors."

This year, Zenebe wants to find ways to encourage people to wash their hands.

"It's a matter of learning and of willingness," she said.

"It is new to people, to eat with their hands. But I am amazed at how willing people are to learn.

"The more I explain about the way we eat, the more people are willing to try."

Across town in city hall, Mike Devaney, who is also in the second year of his job as manager of solid waste and recycling for the city, is talking about lifestyle.

"To achieve a state of zero waste takes an incredible amount of planning," he said.

"We are coming to the realization that recycling is not enough. Source reduction comes about from a whole philosophy about how you produce and how you consume services.

"It takes a lifestyle that people aren't used to. And so, we are in the midst of undoing 20 plus years of bad practices.

"The user has to be educated. It is a lifestyle change."

The most important thing, according to Devaney: Know what is recyclable.

Mike Rosenkrantz, market master at Central Market, puts out blue recycle bins and gray trash cans, but "People still throw their trash in the recycle bin," he said. It takes time to learn the differences."

He and Devaney are working on the difficult challenge of disposing of the cardboard brought in by the 60 vendors of the much larger Central Market, that's open three days a week year round.

Rosenkrantz agrees people do want to change.

"People are buying our cotton mesh bags like crazy," he said. "They even bring in Trader Joe and Whole Foods bags and reuse them to carry home Central Market goods."

Devaney talks about a city resident whose retail employer charges customers for plastic bags.

"I asked why, and she said, 'Look around and you will see a plastic bag floating down the street somewhere. By charging for that plastic bag, you give customers an incentive to shop with their own canvas or high-density plastic bags.'

"The initiative comes from the consumer," Devaney said.

"In Lancaster County, one of six homes is powered by trash," he said, because of the energy created when the county incinerator burns garbage. "This is a well-planned and progressive county. It could go to zero-waste mandates like the big cities." Boulder, Colo.; Seattle; and Ithaca, N.Y., all have zero-waste market houses.

"Make a decision," said Devaney. "You can't go back when you go forward."

E-mail: rstrickler@lnpnews.com