On Saturday mornings at 1691 Meadowbrook Road, a small group gathers with five-gallon buckets at the North Merrick Public Library's compost site. Volunteers weigh and record what's in each bucket, chop the peels and rinds into smaller pieces, and mix them with leaves and sawdust in a three-bin wooden structure. According to the Herald's October 15 report, the drop-off itself takes about ten minutes. Then people stay and talk under a tree.
On Sunday, Nov. 8, that same site holds its Annual Pumpkin Smash. The site opened with a Pumpkin Smash in October 2025, so this one comes back around a year later, and it's the easiest way into a program that has grown quickly because of where it sits.
Built Around a Trip People Already Make
Lauren Krueger, a Merrick resident and co-founder of Community Composting Counts, told the Herald her interest in composting began near the end of the pandemic, when she started researching recycling in the Town of Hempstead and where Long Island's waste ends up. She concluded that food waste, which she said makes up about a third of solid waste, was the place to start.
She first looked at East Meadow Farm as a location, then settled on the library, which had unused outdoor space and a steady flow of visitors. Her reasoning, as she put it to the Herald, was simple.
"If you're already coming to the library to return your books and pick up new things, why not bring your food scraps along?"
Krueger brought the proposal to the library in 2024. Library Director Jacqueline Perez backed it right away, telling the Herald that "sharing resources is what libraries do best." The board of trustees approved it unanimously. Mason Tso, a Scout from Troop 225, raised money for the materials and built the three-bin structure with his father as his Eagle Scout project, finishing in August 2025. Krueger then teamed up with Kimberly Wright, whom she met at a climate-focused fellowship, and the two now run the site together.
The library's composting page calls the site the first of its kind on Long Island. It also says the tools and equipment are bought secondhand whenever possible.
Ten Families in August, Twenty-Three by Mid-October
The library treats the site as a one-year pilot, and its own records show how fast it's growing. When Krueger updated trustees on Aug. 18, 2026, ten families were taking part, and her goal was 1,000 pounds of scraps by the end of the year. By the Herald's Oct. 15 story, the program had passed 1,000 pounds, with two and a half months left in the year.
| Aug. 18, 2026 board meeting | Oct. 15, 2026 Herald report | |
|---|---|---|
| Participating families | 10 | 23 |
| Scraps collected | 530.8 lbs. recorded | More than 1,000 lbs. since April |
| Weekly pace | Not stated | About 100 lbs. |
That's more than double the families in about two months. Krueger told the Herald that the habit change matters more to her than the weight. "None of these people were composting," she said, describing members who had never handled their food scraps in any way other than throwing them out.
Members come in through ordinary library visits. Lisa Luchsinger, a first-time composter, told the Herald she joined after seeing Krueger and Wright at a table in the lobby, talking with patrons as they walked in.
What Membership Involves
The weekly program asks for a commitment, but it's free and you don't need any composting experience. Here's how it works, based on what the library and the Herald describe:
- Your bucket. Members get a green bucket with a lid, branded by Community Composting Counts, to store a week's scraps.
- What goes in. The library lists fruit and vegetable scraps and coffee grounds. The August board minutes describe the material as "vegan with egg shell" food scraps.
- Your time. The Herald says participants take one volunteer shift a month. The board minutes describe it as three hours, 9:30 to 12:30, on a Saturday.
- What you get back. Members get a bucket of finished compost for their home gardens, and whatever's left goes to the library's garden.
"This belongs to the community, and they should have it back."
Krueger said that to the Herald about returning the finished compost to residents.
The library says you can email [email protected] for current drop-off instructions or to join. The group's own site is communitycompostingcounts.org.
Odors and rodents were the library's own early concern. Kelly Rechsteiner, the community relations librarian, told the Herald she had worried about both, and neither has been a problem. She once came by while volunteers were chopping watermelon rinds, "and it just smelled like summer." She has also seen people of different ages and backgrounds get to know each other there. "Perhaps the compost bin is the new water cooler?" she said.
Sunday, Nov. 8: The Pumpkin Smash
The weekly program needs a sign-up and a monthly shift. The Pumpkin Smash asks for much less. Community Composting Counts opened the site with a Pumpkin Smash in October 2025, and the library says that first event kept hundreds of pounds of pumpkins out of the waste stream. This year's event, as posted on the library's event calendar:
- When: Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026, from 2 to 4 p.m.
- Where: The Outdoor Pavilion at North Merrick Public Library.
- What to bring: Unpainted pumpkins, decorative gourds and other seasonal vegetables. The listing invites your "spookiest, gnarliest, rotting old pumpkins."
- Sign-up: Registration is required, and the listing showed 29 spots available.
The only rule the listing gives is "unpainted," so painted pumpkins stay home. The event is listed as in person, but the registration page also includes standard wording about an online event link, so check the details when you sign up.
The Leaves Are on a Different Schedule This Week
Pumpkins aren't the only thing piling up in early November. The compost process depends on dry material, and leaves are one of the two the Herald names. At the curb, though, leaves follow the Town of Hempstead's schedule, and this week it changes.
The Town's 2026 sanitation schedule normally collects yard waste on Wednesdays only. The weeks around the election and Veterans Day are exceptions:
| Date | Yard waste pickup |
|---|---|
| Wednesday, Nov. 4 | No pickup |
| Saturday, Nov. 7 | Makeup pickup |
| Wednesday, Nov. 11 | No pickup |
The usual limits still apply. You can put out up to 25 bags of grass or leaves a week, and each bag can weigh no more than 75 pounds. The Town asks residents not to rake leaves into the street. If bags are piling up between pickups, the Town's Homeowner Disposal Area at 1600 Merrick Road is open weekends from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Bring proof of residency, such as a driver's license or tax bill. The schedule lists compost as accepted but limited per trip, so call the facility at (516) 378-4210 before you load the car.
Nov. 11 is busy for other reasons too. Merrick American Legion Post 1282 holds its Veterans Day ceremony at 10:30 a.m. that Wednesday at Veterans Memorial Park, at Merrick Avenue and Lee Avenue.
So the week looks like this. Bags go out for the Saturday, Nov. 7 makeup pickup. Unpainted pumpkins go to the Outdoor Pavilion on Sunday afternoon if you've registered. And anyone thinking about joining the weekly program can email Community Composting Counts and ask about a bucket.
Knowing which week the leaf truck skips and where the pumpkins can go is the kind of local detail Robyn pays attention to. If you're thinking about what your Merrick home is worth this fall, Robyn Goldowski is glad to talk it through with the same neighborhood-level care. Get your instant home valuation.
