Haddonfield received a $10,000 grant late last year that will promote composting to students and residents.
The funds – from the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commission and the PSE&G Foundation – will pay for 56 Lomi countertop composters that can hold and compost up to three liters of compost.
Six of the units will go to the schools, but residents can purchase the rest at a discount.
“We’ve been trying to think of ways that we could encourage composting to reduce food waste, just like recycling for plastic and paper,” said Bob Bergbauer, chairman of the Haddonfield Environmental Commission.
Existing compost methods often result in piles that can attract bugs or produce a smell, and composters have to be turned regularly. Those issues are eliminated with a countertop composter that is about the size of a microwave.
Composting food scraps will reduce its volume by about 80%, according to the website for Lomi, whose countertop units cost approximately $500 – far less for borough residents – and can prevent ants and fruit flies. They also incorporate fruits and vegetables, bread and grain products, animal products, yard waste and “Lomi-approved products and packaging” to compost about three liters of solid waste in four hours.
Bergbauer explained just how much food waste can be diverted from the landfills. Composting three liters of waste can eliminate about 2.2 pounds of it in trash and landfills.
“If an average household generates 100 composting cycles per year,” he said, “that would eliminate 220 pounds of food waste annually per household.”
Reducing food waste in the trash stream would also lessen damage to the environment and could potentially reduce the amount the borough pays for trash pickup and disposal. The idea is to introduce the countertop composters in two phases: first to the schools and second to the general public later this year.
“Our approach is to use the units in schools as a hands-on, practical way to teach the students about the benefits of composting,” Bergbauer noted.
Composted food scraps could be used right away in a resident’s outdoor garden, and plans are underway for a compost collection system to supply to the Crow’s Woods Gardeners.
The units will be displayed Friday, April 21 at King’s Court as part of the borough’s Earth Day events. More information will be released in the following weeks on Haddonfield’s social-media pages.
This article was updated on May 16, 2023.
