Princeton resident Heidi Fichtenbaum dumps a day’s food scraps into her compost heap. Sustainable Princeton is rolling out a composting pilot program this month that they hope can someday be applied statewide. (Photo by Suzette J. Lucas.)

By Abigail Greene

December is always one of the busiest months for McCaffrey’s Market in Princeton Shopping Center, but behind the meat counter, magic is happening that has nothing to do with the holiday season.

There, piled scraps of recently butchered meat lie waiting to be added to the blue garbage bins reserved for organic waste.
The scraps, which last year weighed in at over 400 tons of compost material at McCaffrey’s Princeton store, are then picked up and brought to composting facilities in New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania.

McCaffrey’s composting plan has much in common with Sustainable Princeton’s six-month Pilot Curbside Food Waste Composting project, set to begin this month.

Participants in this program, the first of its kind in New Jersey, will be given two garbage bins, one for solid waste and one for food waste. Pick-up from both bins will occur weekly, while recyclables will be picked up biweekly.

“Composting is beneficial in so many ways,” said Township Recycling Coordinator Janet Pellichero. “We want to promote backyard composting as much as possible whenever it’s feasible, but the pilot program is a great option for people who don’t have the space.”

Pellichero explained that participants will be required to contract with Central Jersey Waste and Recycling for the duration of the pilot program to allow for the program’s effects to be measured. Central Jersey will take ten percent off of participants’ current waste removal bills upon sign-up.

“A resident can easily save more by reducing their garbage even more,” Pellichero said. “Anything that grows goes in the [organic waste] container, and once you remove all of that from your current garbage, you have very little left over.”

Steve Carney, store manager at Princeton’s McCaffrey’s Market, said that McCaffrey’s has seen significant financial benefits since composting efforts began almost two years ago.

“The more we don’t have to throw in the dumpster, the less it costs us,” Carney said. “We took our trash bill and cut about 60 percent the first year, and we have a six-figure trash bill.”

McCaffrey’s Yardley, Pa. and West Windsor locations plan to begin composting organic waste in the near future.

Princeton Township Mayor Bernard Miller agreed that composting makes financial sense, as the township spends a significant amount of money on leaf and waste removal each year.

However, Carney noted that these efforts hang in a delicate balance.

“That used to all come in a box,” he said, pointing to stack upon stack of plastic soda cases. “But when you cut out the weight of a cardboard box on transportation costs, that’s astronomical.”

Composting has a variety of benefits that are not only financial, and backyard composting is nothing new in Princeton.

Sustainable Princeton residential committee head Heidi Fichtenbaum recently started composting both at her home and office.

“Pretty much all my kitchen and garden waste goes into the bin. It’s just so simple,” Fichtenbaum said. “You just gain appreciation for that cycle and for the systems that nature has in place.”

Fichtenbaum also organized Build-a-Bin, Sustainable Princeton’s home composting project. Through Build-a-Bin, Sustainable Princeton provides instructions and recycled shipping pallets to Princeton residents to construct compost bins.

“I think people are a little hesitant because they’ve never done this before,” Fichtenbaum said. “We really want to be a resource for people and help them make that one next step.”

Elizabeth White, who organized the composting program at Johnson Park Elementary School that used Sustainable Princeton’s Build-a-Bin kit, agreed that this cycle is important to understand.

“The school kitchen itself doesn’t contribute, so it’s up to the kids to put their waste in the composting cans,” White said. “I think a really important part of learning is the process, and this really shows the natural process.”

Princeton resident and avid composter Andrea Malcolm organized another such initiative, Sustainable Princeton’s leaf corral project, through which 48 Princeton households received kits to build backyard corrals in which to compost leaves.

“You’re improving water quality because you’re taking leaves off the street,” she said, ticking off the benefits of composting.

“You’re improving the health of your soil and trees. And traffic safety and pedestrian safety issues also are important.”

Pellichero said that the pilot program seeks not to replace established composting programs in Princeton, but rather to provide an alternative to these programs.

“We know it’s going to work, it’s just a matter of getting it up and running,” Pellichero said. “We’ll be the first ones in New Jersey, so it’s very exciting, which is why we’re taking our time on it to make sure it works.”
Pellichero added that if the pilot program is successful, the township will discuss the option of continuing curbside compost pick-up in the future.
“We’d like to see how the pilot program moves ahead,” Miller said. “If there is sufficient interest to move it forward, the Township Committee would be supportive.”
Miller added that composting will not likely be made mandatory.
Pellichero is enthusiastic about the future of curbside composting.
“The township has been really supportive,” Pellichero said. “There’s no reason why [the program] couldn’t go statewide. We’re hoping we serve as a model for other communities.”
On the Web: sustainableprinceton.org.