To the Editor: 

Imagine receiving a card from your mother or another loved one that reads, “I’ve given you a lifetime subscription to an organic fertilizer program from the oldest and most trusted provider in the U.S. It will be delivered free of charge and tailored to your location. Application will take about the same time as you spend mowing. You won’t need to spend on chemical fertilizers as you have been. Love, your Mother.” 

Then, imagine going to great time and effort to drag that gift to the curb to throw it away, knowing that when it reaches landfill it will generate methane which harms the climate. 

As I walk the streets of Princeton past massive piles of leaves raked laboriously to the curb, I see the gift of nature’s organic nutrients for our soil thrown away. I hope that more and more people will let go of an outdated mindset and see leaves — easily turned into nourishing mulch for our lawns by quickly mowing over them — as a priceless gift.  

Shannon Daley-Harris
Dorann Avenue