More Times Square Trash for New Year's!

Photograph of a sanitation worker sweeping up New Year's celebration trash in Times Square by Tina Fineberg/AP

Yesterday, just after midnight, the over 160 Department of Sanitation employees headed to Times Square to clean up after the New Year's revelers. According to 1010 WINS, that crew worked until 8 a.m., and then another shift came in at 11 a.m. to further "tidy" up the area. It's believed that over 41 tons of garbage were collected, but since there were 25 mph winds, it's hard to say exactly how much detritus they picked up. Sanitation Commission John Doherty said, "It takes a while. Last night was a windy night. There's probably confetti as far as the East River."

And the Times Square Alliance believes that a million people braved the freezing temperatures to ring in 2009 in Times Square.

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By Jen Chung in News on January 2, 2009 10:29 AM

Comments [rss]

Shinobi Shaw

#8 that is preposterous, are you kidding me? You greenies want to control every facet of people's daily lives and I am telling you now, it's not going to work. People will not put up with it, maybe at the beginning they will take it but sooner or later they will wake up and get angry.

snoopydog

Oops I meant reckless. I just get so irritated about them young whipper snappers out there in the early morning I can't spel correctly

snoopydog

If cattle stopped eating all that grass and beans then their butts wouldn't need to be corked. Car emissions would come next and then the tax on breathing based on your metabolism rate between the hours of 1AM and 5 AM. That would stop most of that wreckless club scene shenanigans.

Regarding Times Square, it's not the same without Dick Clark. The people should take out what they brought in, and no more confetti or P Diddy Puff. They should cancel New Years and roll it in with the Winter Solstice like the Romans did. I've seen video clips of ancient Rome and it was never that dirty. Probably because Charlton Heston was president then and he knew how to handle people.

Shinobi Shaw

#4 I guess you are also the type to believe we should tax farmers for their cattle Flatulence and tax people for their car emissions and even tax breathing?

Humans have always produced waste, it's fact of Civilization.

But you're wearing your greenie fake liberal badge PROUDLY, sir.

Steven

Like Anderson Cooper said the crowed was a couple thousand not a million.

Lautaro

I was kinda hoping Gothamist would stay away from the whole "Look how much garbage has to be cleaned up after New Year's" beat. But, I did learn something- like, maybe confetti isn't such a good idea, especially when it ends up in the East River. Also, corporate sponsorship is really getting out of hand- all those Pepsi balloons I saw on t.v. were a bit annoying. But garbage sucks.

snoopydog

Next year they should charge $3 a head to those wanting to freeze their butts off in Times Square to help pay for this cleanup. Enough with all this freebee shit.

nomnomnom

That's a lot of garbage!

Såkandulæredet

i wonder how many used diapers are among the garbage.

Peter

And the Times Square Alliance believes that a million people braved the freezing temperatures to ring in 2009 in Times Square.

It is very difficult to measure crowds for non-ticketed events with any degree of accuracy. Chances are the "million people" statement reflects wishful thinking more than physical reality.