To the Editor:

As a follow-up to last week’s front page article on a speech by Sustainable Princeton’s Director, Molly Jones, advocating a “Climate Action Plan To Reduce Emissions,” I am writing to encourage our citizens to participate in Princeton’s Curbside Organic Composting Program, scheduled to begin this year’s cycle in February. Compostable material, plant, and animal waste (“if it grows, it goes”), can be recycled as mulch for your garden (free to all Princeton subscribers) instead of going into landfills where it produces methane, which is 20 times more hazardous to the environment than carbon dioxide. Collecting and transporting trash destined for increasingly scarce landfills costs Princeton hundreds of dollars a ton, whereas curbside composting is less than half that cost. The truck the program uses runs on natural gas and emits 90 percent fewer emissions than regular gas or diesel. We are saving tax dollars and helping the environment by participating in this efficiently run program.

The Organics Program, which costs only $65 a year, does not replace any of our current trash or recycling collections. The narrow green carts, supplied free to participants by Princeton’s Public Works, are picked up every Wednesday. Enrollment is easy: a simple call to Princeton’s recycling coordinator, Janet Pellichero, at (609) 688-2566 or an email to jpellichero@princetonnj.gov.

SUZANNE NASH

Governors Lane