NYC officials are making it even harder for Pizza Rat to enjoy his favorite meal.
NYC Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue announced Friday that awkwardly shaped pizza boxes, which are difficult to fit into a typical city trash can without folding them into a haphazard piece of origami art, can soon be thrown out in specifically designed receptacles coming to five city parks in time for Labor Day weekend.
The boxes must be empty before they go into the bins. Parks officials said they hope to keep park trash overflow at bay by keeping pizza boxes separate from other trash.
According to Parks, separating food waste and empty pizza boxes will also lessen the food sources available to area rodents.
There are no limits to who can drop off their empty pizza boxes, but the initiative is aimed toward New Yorkers who already in a park enjoying a pizza, a spokesperson for Parks said.
Each borough will have a park with at least one of the new rectangular-shaped bins. The initiative allows visitors to simply slide their empty pizza boxes into a dedicated container, rather than “forcing” the rectangular boxes into circular bins.
“Whether you’re relaxing after caring for your local garden, taking in a Movie Under the Stars, or just connecting with your neighbors, few things are more quintessentially New York than enjoying a slice of pizza in one of our public parks,” Donoghue said. “We all know that you shouldn’t try to fit a square peg into a round hole, which is why we’re deploying special trash cans just for pizza boxes to parks throughout the five boroughs.”
Which parks will have pizza box trash bins?
Five NYC parks will have pizza bins: Loreto Playground, Bronx; Saratoga Park, Brooklyn; Father Demo Square, Manhattan; Sobelsohn Playground, Queens; and Jennifer’s Playground, Staten Island.
The bins, designed in-house by the Parks Department, are reminiscent of the classic red-and-white checkered tablecloths so often found in traditional NYC pizza joints and Italian restaurants.
Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi, who supports the initiative, attacked Pizza Rat personally while crediting NYC Mayor Eric Adams.
“Pizza Rat will find no quarter in city parks soon enough, thanks to these pizza-ready trash cans,” Joshi said. “This is yet another creative way the Adams administration is improving quality of life for people, not pests.”
Likely to Pizza Rat’s dismay, a pizza box bin program was piloted in Central Park this summer. Margaret Asaro, vice president for park maintenance and facilities at the Central Park Conservancy, said the program showed success with “fewer jammed trash bins and surrounding litter. ”
She also said there was more recycled cardboard. (According to the Department of Sanitation, “lightly soiled” pizza boxes can be recycled.)
“As we work to expand the pilot program to more locations in Central Park, we applaud our partners in NYC Parks who are deploying these pizza bins to parks throughout the city. We will continue to work together to share knowledge and findings to keep New York’s public parks clean.”
The pizza box announcement follows other initiatives that were launched recently to tackle trash in the Big Apple, including the city’s mandatory composting service, which goes into effect the week of Oct. 6.
The Parks spokespersons said the agency is “excited to see how New Yorkers engage with the bins.” He added nothing will be ruled out in terms of expanding the initiative to more locations.
Pizza Rat was unavailable for comment on this story.