Thank you goes to the Big Apple’s crew of street sweepers.
After Thursday’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Department of Sanitation’s workers hauled away a staggering 41.54 tons of discarded goodies—everything from tossed food and clothing to other debris—along the 2.5‑mile stretch of parade route.
The cleanup haul was comparable in weight to a hefty humpback whale. It exceeded the 36 tons collected from last year’s parade, which still drew full crowds despite rainy weather. Yet this year’s haul is modest when compared with the 65 tons swept up after the 2023 parade, the highest figure on record. In previous years, the average daily pickup hovered around 62 tons.
“In addition to the usual confetti and shredded paper, a cold sunny day like [Thursday] also means a lot of coffee cups, doughnut boxes and extra layers of clothing that marchers leave behind,” a sanitation spokesperson explained to the Post. A photo shows more than 180 sanitation workers rushing in after the parade to remove the mess. Another image highlights that roughly 42 tons of trash were actually gathered this year, with discarded outfits among the collection.
“Last year, on the other hand, was cold and rainy, so while the crowds were much smaller, we picked up a lot of heavy wet ponchos,” the rep added.
This year the department deployed 38 street‑sweeping rigs and 29 collection trucks to patrol the roads, turning the cleanup into an operation of its own. Almost 60 workers kept to the sidewalks with hand‑brooms and backpack blowers to snatch even the tiniest confetti shards. In total, 188 sanitation staff members were on duty, ensuring that every street reopened within 90 minutes of the festivities. Central Park West, the parade’s starting point, was cleared and opened again at 12:20 p.m.
The parade featured 34 balloons, four mini‑balloons, 28 floats, 33 clown groups, and 11 marching bands. Typically, more than 3.5 million New Yorkers and an additional 50 million viewers at home tune in to watch the annual spectacle.
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