LAWRENCE: Food waste recycling still needs customers

Lawrence Township’s proposed organic waste recycling program has reached the one-third mark — 100 households have expressed interest in it — toward the minimum of 300 households needed to implemen

By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
   Lawrence Township’s proposed organic waste recycling program has reached the one-third mark — 100 households have expressed interest in it — toward the minimum of 300 households needed to implement the program.
   Last week, Lawrence Township Recycling Coordinator Greg Whitehead walked a small audience through the organic waste recycling program and touted its benefits in the last of three informational sessions on the program.
   Lawrence Township already has taken the lead in recycling — from electronics to tires and batteries and, of course, leaves and yard waste at the Joseph H. Maher Ecological Center, said Mr. Whitehead. He is also the director of the township’s Department of Public Works.
   The township’s proposed organic waste recycling program, which would collect food waste as well as paper plates, tea bags, houseplants, fruits, nuts, vegetables, spoiled or expired food, pizza boxes and paper take-out containers, would be “a nice fit,” Mr. Whitehead said.
   The proposed program, which is voluntary, is open to households that have curbside trash pickup. Residents who live in apartment or townhouse developments and who put their household trash in a Dumpster are not eligible for the program.
   Participants would pay a $17 monthly fee to Central Jersey Waste & Recycling, Mr. Whitehead said. A minimum of 300 households must sign up for it. So far, 100 households have expressed interest in it, he added.
   ”The quicker we get to 300 households, the better,” he said. “Word of mouth will spread it. You can share a (green organic waste) bucket with your neighbor, but one of you will have to sign up.”
   Mr. Whitehead told the half-dozen residents that a grant from Sustainable Jersey that will be used to offset the cost for the first 300 households. It will reduce the cost by 30 percent. The $204 annual tab will be reduced by $60, he said.
   Households that choose to take part would keep a small container in the kitchen, and dump food scraps and other organic recyclable material into it, he said. The township initially may supply special bags for the collection container, but participants likely would have to buy their own later on.
   Mr. Whitehead said odors should not be a problem, especially if participants pour baking soda into the kitchen container. It also depends on the contents — pizza boxes and egg cartons would not emit an odor, but fish might, he said. One solution is to empty the container frequently.
   The contents of the kitchen container would be placed in a small green container, similar to the blue trash buckets issued by Lawrence Township. Once a week, Central Jersey Waste & Recycling would send a truck to empty the green containers.
   Addressing concerns that dumping organic waste into the green container would attract squirrels and rats, Mr. Whitehead pointed out that it is “the same stuff” that residents put in their blue township-issued trash carts. Princeton initiated its organic waste recycling program several years ago, and there have not been any issues, he said.
   The $17 monthly fee covers the transportation costs, he said. The organic waste is hauled to a special facility in Delaware, which converts it into compost. But if enough municipalities join the organic waste recycling movement, a facility could be built closer to home and it is likely that the monthly fee would be less, he said.
   ”Nobody can say (what will happen) in five years — whether there will be a local facility (to handle the organic recycling waste),” Mr. Whitehead said. “But there has to be some leaders and pioneers to get this program going.”
   There are financial benefits to the township, Mr. Whitehead said. Central Jersey Waste & Recycling is paid to collect the trash in the blue buckets. The garbage trucks go to the waste transfer station in Ewing Township, where they are weighed by the Mercer County Improvement Authority.
   The Mercer County Improvement Authority charges a fee to Lawrence Township on a tonnage basis, he said. Lawrence Township pays to have the trash collected and then it pays $125 per ton to have it hauled away to a landfill.
   As the organic waste recycling program “takes off,” he said, it will cost Lawrence less money for the disposal costs. The garbage trucks won’t weigh as much, because there will be less in them. The green organic waste recycling program buckets are not subject to being weighed, he added.
   Mr. Whitehead held out the prospect that the Lawrence Township public school district may become involved in the organic waste recycling program. There is also a division of Central Jersey Waste & Recycling that collects food waste from restaurants.
   For more information, visit www.lawrencetwp.com, call the Department of Public Works at 609-587-1894, or email [email protected].