By Huck Fairman
The town of Princeton, led by its recycling coordinator Janet Pellichero and John Marshall, president of the Princeton Merchants’ Association, is about to launch a new recycling bin campaign for downtown Princeton.
The Public Works Department will be placing 10 new bins along Nassau and Witherspoon streets. These bins will have two compartments, one to take recyclable bottles and plastics, and the other, trash. Ms. Pellichero and Mr. Marshall are both pleased that the program is about to begin, and each attributes early consulting between the merchants and the town as key to their progress. If it is successful, more bins will be added around town.
Printed instructions on the bins will guide users as to what and in which compartment to deposit recyclables or trash.
Speaking at the Princeton Public Library some time ago, at one of the Breakfasts of Great Ideas, Steve DiNardi, third generation owner of New Brunswick’s Colgate Paper Stock Company, and Princeton’s recycler, reminded us that only plastics Nos. 1 and 2 can be recycled. A number of residents have questioned this upon hearing that other towns recycle numbers up to 7 or 8. Mr. Marshall explained that because there is a great number and variety of plastics above Nos. 1 and 2, Colgate has not found the necessary buyers or markets for it to sell reasonable quantities of those other plastics. When Colgate collects the other plastics, it has no choice but to have those plastics trucked to the landfills — which is one of the outcomes the bins program is trying avoid as much as is currently possible.
Ms. Pellichero and Mr. Marshall wanted to be clear that the success of the program will depend on those residents and visitors using the bins as the printed instructions indicate. This means depositing clean and empty bottles or plastics — not covered with food, or filled with drink — in their appropriate compartment. Any contamination of the recyclables risks having them disposed of as trash.
And again, users must be careful to use the correct compartment. If users too often mistakenly use the wrong compartments, or dispose of contaminated recyclables, the extra handling and reduced quantities may render the program unprofitable for Colgate.
But if residents and users take the necessary care to dispose properly, the program could save the town money by not having to pay for the longer trucking costs to the landfills. Both Ms. Pellichero and Mr. Marshall are hopeful that this program can be money-saving, while also benefiting the environment. Those two outcomes lie, however, in the hands of those using the new bins.
The town and the Princeton Merchants’ Association will make efforts to encourage those in downtown Princeton to become aware of the requirements and of this opportunity.
Huck Fairman is a Princeton author who writes regularly about the environment.
