Hundreds of pounds of pasta mysteriously dumped next to creek

OLD BRIDGE, N.J. (Gray News/TMX) – Citizens of a New Jersey town are scratching their heads after finding nearly 500 pounds of cooked pasta dumped by a creek last week.

Former town council candidate Nina Jochnowitz shared photos on Facebook of the mess in the woods next to a creek near Veterans Park in Old Bridge on April 26.

Photos show several large piles of a variety of cooked noodles.

Jochnowitz said town leaders were alerted to the pasta but hadn’t cleaned it up.

Old Bridge is the only town in Middlesex County without bulk garbage pickup and frequently sees widespread illegal dumping.

“No surprise when we see the dumping of construction and other garbage spewed in all of the neighborhoods,” Jochnowitz said.

However, two days after posting the photos, Jochnowitz said the social media attention prompted the public works department to clean up the mess.

“The township heard or read the comments and responded by doing a rapid cleanup [of] the river basin and pasta dump,” Jochnowitz wrote on Facebook. “They also cleaned out all the garbage tossed in the basin. Thank you Kasey and the entire crew of Public Works!”

It’s unclear where the pasta came from or why it was dumped.

Copyright 2023 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. TMX contributed to this report.