Organic Waste

January 2019 Update

Both Princeton and Lawrence Townships have been leaders in the curbside organic waste movement.  Subsidized by a $20K grant Princeton instituted the first curbside organic waste collection program in NJ in 2011.  Lawrence Twp.attempted to follow suit in 2014 and has been struggling to get enough residents to participate to make the program feasible.   However the programs have been bedeviled with problems, most recently, a significant increase in the cost for (voluntary) participation in the program.  The Lawrence Twp. website states that the current monthly cost is now over $38 per residence.

Princeton has also faced significant challenges with their collection program recently and temporarily suspended the program as of the end of January while they re-evaluate the program.  In a letter to program participants Mayor Liz Lempert stated that:

“participants experienced service disruptions as our solid waste contractor consistently failed to make timely required pickups. They also failed to secure a proper home for the food waste, sending it at times to a local incinerator.”  In addition, the “food waste stream contained unacceptable levels of contamination from time to time. In those instances, the farm rejected our food waste and it ended up in a landfill.”

Still strongly committed and faced with the significant increase in collection fees as Lawrence, Princeton will work to re-invent the program.  Sustainable Princeton offered the following food waste reduction suggestions for program enthusiasts in their post “Got the Curbside Compost Blues?”, promoting a combination of source reduction, feeding the hungry, feeding animals, and backyard composting.

Curbside organic waste collection remains a laudable goal, but the viability (cost) of the program is the challenge that must still be overcome.  Stay tuned for further updates.

Plastic Pollution

Who could have guessed the irony in the statement in 1967 when Mr. Robinson first said to Benjamin Braddock: “There’s a great future in plastics?”   Yes, there was and it has certainly come back round to bite us.  Unfortunately, there was a great future for the upcoming plastics industry, but not for the planet.

We encourage everyone to read our suggestions from our Plastic-Free July event and to try incorporate them into your own lives.  Help us to have have cleaner streets, oceans, and beautiful communities, and to reduce the constant production of waste from consumer products.  Excessive consumerism depletes our natural resources and impacts heavily on the future of our world.

Recycling

MCIA: materials accepted

The Mercer County Improvement Authority operates a curbside recycling program for residents and small businesses in the following municipalities: