PRINCETON: Food waste program coming to borough

By Victoria Hurley-Schubert, Staff Writer
   Princeton Borough residents will have an option to reduce their garbage and save the municipality money with a new food waste composting program expanding to their town.
   Borough Councilwoman Heather Howard already participates in the program and gladly pays $20 per month out of pocket for it, even though trash collection is paid for in her municipal taxes. She has seen a great reduction in the garbage going to the curb — and ultimately the landfill — since her family enrolled last year.
   Princeton Township is the first community in New Jersey to participate in a curbside food and organic waste program.
   ”This is another way Princeton can lead and show the rest of the state how to promote sustainable government,” said Ms. Howard. “It’s so easy a kid can do it. My son loves to fill the container in the kitchen and take it out.”
   The Howard household has been participating in the organic material compost program since the fall and Ms. Howard said the family’s habits changed within a week.
   ”It was easy to adjust. We put in food clippings, paper towels; we keep a small container in the kitchen and every day we fill it up and take it to the larger container outside and roll it to the curb once a week. We’ve seen a dramatic reduction in our regular trash.”
   Her son leads the way, reminding Ms. Howard and her husband what is compostable if he sees them heading to the wrong trash bin in the kitchen.
   ”What other families will see is their kids are very attuned to these issues because they learn about them in school,” she said. “In Nate’s school, Riverside Elementary, they compost in the cafeteria, so the kids are way ahead of us.”
   Organic materials are anything that grows, did grow or can be grown, said Janet Pellichero, recycling coordinator for Princeton Township, speaking at the Feb. 7 Borough Council meeting.
   ”It drastically reduces the amount of trash that is going curbside,” she said, noting that 40 to 50 percent of the township participants are now placing containers out for weekly collection.
   Besides less trash being sent to the landfills, another benefit of the program is the reduction of the tipping, or disposal fees, municipalities have to pay to have their garbage hauled away, said Ms. Pellichero.
   In Mercer County, the tipping fee is $124.96 per ton before it goes to a landfill in Pennsylvania.
   ”That is the highest tipping fee in the state of New Jersey,” she said. “One thing we can do that changes that number is recycle. Thirty-five percent of what we throw away is organic.”
   Recyclables do not have to cross the solid waste scales and be weighted, she said.
   ”Typically recyclable materials are transported and processed anywhere from $45 to $55 per ton; solid waste is $125 per ton. Right off the bat that is the savings that could be realized by recycling the food and organics that are accepted in the program,” she said.
   Organic waste recycling could save up to $80 per ton, said Ms. Pellichero.
   This year’s annual municipal waste contract is $374,700, which is calculated by number of households and an average tonnage from the past two years, said Jack West, borough engineer. The average tonnage per month last year was 160 tons of garbage, he said.
   With 160 tons of trash hauled from the borough monthly, and the up to $80 per ton savings of the organic material composting, there is the potential for $12,800 in monthly savings, or $153,600 per year, if everyone in the borough participated.
   Township residents, who pay individually for their garbage collection, pay an additional $25 per month per household to participate in the program, said Ms. Pellichero.
   Under the new plan, the service will cost $10 per month for borough residents.