On September 21, 2024, Torus spent the afternoon at West Windsor Community Day at Duck Pond Park. From noon to 4 p.m., the team met local residents and explained how its free curbside food-scrap pickup works. It was an early chance to talk about Torus in the town where the organization began.
The photo above shows, from left to right, Zikang (Zk) Jiang, Anthony Woo, West Windsor Councilman Dan Weiss, and David Chen. The Torus buckets in front of the group were the same kind of five-gallon buckets used by households participating in the service.
Putting a face to the service
A curbside composting program can sound abstract until residents see the bucket and meet the people coordinating it. At the booth, the team could walk through the basic process: Torus delivers a bucket, households fill it with accepted food scraps, and scheduled pickups move that material out of the trash stream. The service itself is free, and the separate bucket deposit is refundable.
Residents who wanted more detail could review what Torus accepts, how the pickup schedule works, and whether their address was within an active route. Those same answers are now collected on the How Torus Works page and the acceptable food waste guide.
A local conversation
Community Day gave residents a direct place to ask practical questions. Food-scrap collection depends on clear instructions and reliable local participation, so those conversations helped the team understand what people needed to know before signing up. They also made it easier to explain that food scraps need a separate collection stream and do not belong in an ordinary recycling cart.
Torus attended with space provided by Stacey Fox, Executive Director of the Mercer County Defense League. That support gave the team room to display its buckets, speak with attendees, and introduce the service to more West Windsor households.
Connecting with West Windsor leaders
Councilman Dan Weiss stopped by the booth and met the Torus team during the event. Local composting access requires communication among residents, community organizations, and township officials. That relationship continues to inform Torus’s work in West Windsor, including its proposal for a public food-scrap drop-off site.
Composting with Torus in West Windsor
West Windsor residents can check current local service information on the West Windsor composting page. Households and businesses within an eligible route can then sign up for free curbside pickup.