Lower Merion Township to pilot curbside composting program

The deadline is approaching for select Lower Merion Township residents to sign up for a full year of free curbside pickup and composing of their household’s food scraps and other organic waste.

To be eligible for the township’s pilot program, residents must live in a single-family home in the “catchment area,” which includes residences located southeast of the Bala Cynwyd Library, from West City Avenue to North Highland Avenue and from Old Lancaster Road to Bryn Mawr Avenue, as well as homes on Stoneway Lane, Edgehill Road and Upland Road.

Participating households must also currently have their trash and recycling picked up by Lower Merion Township. Space is limited to the first 75 eligible households to register, and the deadline is March 1.

Here’s how the program works for successful registrants: First, the township will deliver a composting bucket to participants’ service address. Then residents can fill their bucket with food scraps and other organic material — such as houseplant trimmings, compostable utensils and hair/nail clippings — and set the bucket out for collection each week on their regularly scheduled refuse collection days. The township will then pick up the buckets and turn waste into fertilizer.