In A Bizarre Case Of Littering, Hundreds Of Pounds Of Pasta Were Dumped In The New Jersey Woods

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By Elaina Friedman|May 5, 2023 11:53 am EST

The township of Old Bridge, New Jersey, has a trash problem. Nina Jochnowitz, a community leader and former Old Bridge town council candidate, told The New York Times that residents often reach out to her in the hope that she can help convince the Department of Public Works to do something about the bags of garbage languishing outside their homes. Old Bridge is also the only town in Middlesex County that doesn't collect bulk waste, including furniture and construction debris.

With nowhere else to dispose of their hefty junk, some residents have taken to dumping couches and other unmanaged waste items along Iresick Brook, a stream in a residential area. On April 26, an Old Bridge resident informed Jochnowitz that "a pile of pasta" had joined the woodland trash party. But it wasn't just a pile. According to Jochnowitz, there were nearly 500 pounds of carb carnage stretching "literally 25 feet."

Town gossip ran amok. One resident called this bizarre case of littering the "Great Pasta-gate of 2023." Here's what we know.

Cloudy with a chance of soggy spaghetti

Giant pile of uncooked spaghetti in woods

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In a small town like Old Bridge, locals are bound to spread rumors when hundreds of pounds of discarded pasta appear out of nowhere and are initially left unattended by the DPW. When Nina Jochnowitz posted photos of the massive pile of spaghetti (plus macaroni, elbows, ziti, and alphabet pasta) on Facebook, it was only a matter of time before people started talking.

This week, those rumors were finally put to rest. NBC 4 New York reported that the culprit was a military veteran who found a gigantic stockpile of dried pasta while cleaning out his mother's house in the wake of her death. Perhaps it was grief, or maybe he just really didn't like pasta. Whatever the case, he dumped the uncooked noodles by the brook and called it a day. The town's mayor, Owen Henry, agreed to let it slide. It remains to be seen whether the incident will propel the town to rethink its waste management.