‘Mission Impastable:’ New Jersey Town Finds 500 Pounds of Pasta Dumped in the Woods

New Jersey residents were in for a surprise after finding hundreds of pounds worth of pasta in the woods of Old Bridge, a small suburban town. Community advocate Nina Jochnowitz, who unsuccessfully ran for city council several years ago, received a message about the cooked pasta and headed to the woods to see for herself.

Calling it “Mission Impasteable,” Jochnowitz posted photos of the scene on social media, saying 500 pounds of pasta had been dumped in the woods. Her photos quickly went viral and shed light on a bigger problem the town has–an absence of bulk trash pickup. She said the pasta had been left there for several days before she received a call to help clean it up, telling CNBC News, “That’s kind of funny, humorous, everything else.” She continued, “Because we don’t have pick-up, we have dumps. The funny dump this time was pasta.”

Public Works did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment.

The township apparently doesn’t offer bulk garbage pickup services, meaning people regularly dump their unwanted items in the same area the pasta was found. “It’s not the worst thing I’ve seen in these woods,” Jochnowitz told The Washington Post, adding, “We see a lot of people dumping stuff,” including discarded furniture.

The pasta was not cooked when it was dumped but the heavy rain had caused it to soften, making it appear to be cooked. Old Bridge Mayor Owen Henry said in a phone call with Gizmodo he received word of the situation on Friday morning last week and had it cleared within three hours before it drifted into the stream and caused any environmental damage or affected nearby wildlife.

He said, “Whoever did this used poor judgment and made a mistake,” adding he doesn’t know who the person is, but said, “We need to take a little more responsibility for our environment, and I hope people think the same way.”

Jochnowitz said in a Facebook comment on Friday that she believed the pasta dump had been done by a local resident who “has severe PTSD and is a veteran.” Public Works was called to assist with the cleanup which was carried out in less than an hour, but Jochnowitz has called on town officials to take action against the lack of bulk garbage pickup.

Jochnowitz said on social media that the township manager calculated that adding bulk pickup would add an additional $20 per household to people’s garbage bills. “We have bulk garbage,” she told CBS News. “We need to have this addressed by the township. They haven’t addressed it.”

Henry said it’s “a ridiculous comment” to blame the township’s lack of bulk pickup for the heaps of pasta that was thrown in the woods, saying it would just go to landfills which “costs millions of dollars.” He added that there is a large recycling facility in town where anyone can bring unwanted materials including mattresses, rugs, metal, concrete, and more.

“I do not believe the town should throw junk in a landfill when it can be recycled or repurposed,” Henry said in the call. “Assuming the pasta was still usable, I wish it had ended up in our food bank, which could have really used it.”