Pizza box recycling bin installed at Central Park

MANHATTAN, N.Y. (PIX11) – Careful how you toss that greasy pizza box, the rats are watching. 

Central Park Conservancy recently installed a pizza box-sized recycling bin to see if it will help people toss their picnic treat more effectively. 

On a warm, busy day, conservancy personnel clear out more than 100 pizza boxes from the Great Lawn alone, according to the conservancy. And even when park-goers do toss their boxes, a regular-size pizza box doesn't fit in the park’s traditional waste bins, “leading to jammed cans that can attract rodents.”

Enter: a pizza box-shaped recycling bin, adjacent to the Great Lawn, near the playgrounds, basketball courts, picnic tables and local pizzerias. 

The initial bin will serve as a pilot, the success of which will determine whether more are added throughout the park. 

“Turn your pizza party into a sustainable soirée with Central Park’s new pizza box recycling! This pilot program will make our park cleaner and our city greener,” Mayor Eric Adam’s office said on X. 

Central Park Conservancy, which is in charge of the park’s maintenance, is working toward making Central Park a zero-waste spot, according to a representative.