Princeton expands recycling program for food scraps, adding five new drop-off sites

Princeton residents will have more places to ditch their food waste instead of sending it to landfills, as the town this week doubled down on its growing food-scraps recycling program with five new drop-off sites.

The new bins are located at Griggs Farm, Thanet Circle, Westminster Choir College, Mercer Road, and at the former Princeton First Aid & Rescue Squad building on North Harrison Street.

The program, launched in October 2023, allows residents to drop off household food waste instead of placing it in the trash. Food scraps in landfills produce methane, a greenhouse gas. According to the municipality, nearly 500 households participate in the program, which has diverted more than 50 tons of material from landfills and now averages about 1,500 pounds of food waste collected per week.

Princeton officials said the expansion was funded through a federal Composting and Food Waste Reduction grant. Most sites use locked green MetroSTOR bins that residents access with a keypad or smartphone app after registering for the program.

All collected food scraps are transported to Trenton Renewables, an anaerobic digestion facility that processes the waste into electricity and soil amendments. Municipal engineers estimate the collection program has reduced emissions by about 27 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, based on federal EPA calculations.

The program is open to all Princeton residents at no cost.