Princeton officials are getting closer to hitting the “resume” button on the town’s organic food waste recycling program.
Town officials hit the “pause” button in January after Solterra Recycling, Inc., which had the contract to haul the waste, doubled its price under a new contract.
Princeton officials also were unhappy about the sporadic pickup of the organic food waste.
At a community meeting last week, Princeton officials outlined several options under consideration that would lead to the reinstatement of the program – both short-term and long-term solutions.
Setting the tone for the April 29 meeting that drew about 100 residents, Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert assured them that Princeton Council is committed to the organic food waste recycling program. A decision on how it will be implemented will be reached by June or July.
While it has been a “really difficult time” for program participants, the good news is that the pause in service has opened up opportunities that could change how the program is handled and make it much better, Mayor Lempert said.
Robert Hough, the town’s director of Infrastructure and Operations, said the plan is for the town to collect the organic food waste. The town will buy a truck and make improvements at the Princeton Sewer Operating Committee site on River Road to accommodate the program.
“I am 99 percent sure that’s the way it is going to go,” Hough said.
Hough said arrangements are being made to meet with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to review the proposal. State officials seem to like it because it is food waste – not trash – that is being recycled.
But if the River Road site is not acceptable, the backup plan calls for hauling the organic food waste to Double Brook Farm in Hopewell Township, Hough said.
Matt Wasserman, president of Sustainable Princeton’s board of directors, outlined several options under consideration for handling the waste – from acquiring Metlife Stadium’s unused biodigester, to a rocket composter, windrow composting at Double Brook Farm in cooperation with Cherry Valley Cooperative farm, and the bokashi fermentation method.
The Metlife biodigester is most attractive to the town, because Metlife Stadium management would “gift” it to Princeton, Hough said.
There will likely be some cost – possibly for transportation from the stadium that is located in East Rutherford – but “unless we are missing something big,” he said, it’s a good idea and “potentially an exciting opportunity for us.”
Exploring those options will take time, but there is a short-term solution that uses toters – oversized plastic storage bins – that would be placed around town and used to collect organic food waste, Wasserman said. They would be placed around town.
Each toter has a 3,000-pound capacity and will hold 3 cubic yards of material. The food waste would be taken to a local farm.
The toter option could be put in place by early summer, Hough said. Many apartment dwellers have asked how they could participate, and the toter option is a viable one, he said. It could be placed in a community drop-off point.
But regardless of the option that is chosen, education is the key to its success, Wasserman said.
Sustainable Princeton, Princeton University and the Cherry Valley Cooperative could advocate and help educate residents so they will not commingle trash with food recyclables.
