Tortelli disgraceful: 200kg of pasta dumped by river amid calls for culprit to be sent to 'penne-tentiary'
4 May 2023, 16:24
A clean up of more than 200kg of pasta near a river in New Jersey got under way in a bizarre case of food dumping.
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Images of the discarded spaghetti and other types of pasta soon led to online puns about the culprits being sent to the "penne tentiary" as others speculated about the motive behind the macaroni mess.
A former council candidate for Old Bridge, north east of Philadelphia, shared photos the food dumped in mounds next to a creek.
Nina Jochnowitz said: "The township heard or read the comments and responded by doing a rapid cleanup the river basin and pasta dump.
"As my friend called it a "Mission Impasteable"!!! They also cleaned out all the garbage tossed in the basin.
"Thank you Kasey and the entire crew of Public Works!
"The Mayor and his [posse] continue to ignore the Sixth Ward.
"No surprise when we see the dumping of construction and other garbage spewed in all of the neighborhoods.
"This week, there was a new type of dumping, of excessive food, PASTA.
"A good Estimate is more than 500 pounds of pasta dumped adjacent to the streams intersecting with Hilliard and Mimi."
The clean up quickly drew attention – and pasta puns – online.
"We should send the perpetrators to the state penne tentiary," wrote one user on Reddit.
"It was pasta expiration date," quipped another.
A third went for a series of jokes: "Cleaning this up will cost the town a pretty [penne]. I don't know what the criminals were on, they had to be totally sauced to do something like this. But I hope we spaghet justice."
Others suggested the culprits could be "Al Dente" and his partner "Lin Guine".
Despite the joke, Ms Jochnowitz said it illustrate a wider problem of dumping in the Old Bridge area.
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"You might say, 'Who cares about pasta?' But pasta has a PH level that will impact the water stream," she told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
"That water stream is important to clean up because it feeds into the town's water supply … It was one of the fastest cleanups I've ever seen here."
