WASHINGTON — Picture it: You're out for a night on the town in D.C.'s beautiful Adams Morgan neighborhood. Suddenly, you get hungry and venture into Jumbo Slice on 18th Street to get something to eat. You grab your slice and scarf it down, only to be left with a full-sized pizza box. The recycling bins don't fit the box, so you just stack atop the already teetering stack like a particularly intense game of Jenga.
That pizza box puzzle has been one that neighborhood leaders have been trying to solve for years. As far back as 2021, the Adams Morgan Business Improvement District has been trying to crack down on the litter.
"None of the street trash cans are able to accommodate the volume of pizza boxes we frequently see, so please understand that when the restaurants give you your slice on a paper plate, it's in everyone's best interest. We love to see everyone enjoying all that Adams Morgan has to offer, but nobody wants to see the stacks of pizza boxes littering the sidewalk the next morning. Thanks for helping us keep Adams Morgan clean!" the BID said in an Instagram post from three years ago.
Now, a solution has finally been put in place on the sidewalks of AdMo. The BID just rolled out new recycling bins specifically designed to accommodate the large boxes. According to a spokesperson for the BID, two new pizza box trash cans are now in the neighborhood. One is located at 18th and Belmont and another close to the mid-block cross walk in the 2400 block of 18th Street — close to Grand Central.
The new bins replace two Big Belly trash cans that had been installed in 2011 as part of the 18th Street Streetscape construction done by District Department of Transportation.
Kristen Barden, the Adams Morgan Partnership BID Executive Director, tells us that while the new bins aren't rat proof, it's a step in the right direction for combating the longtime pizza problem.
"This is a better solution to organize the pizza boxes. Our Clean Team empties all the trash and recycling cans every day so this will help to organize the pizza boxes better for collection," Barden said.
