Cleaning up Times Square after the 2015 New Year’s Eve Ball Drop

Despite the bitter bite of winter, over one million people braved the cold this year to watch the famous New Year’s Eve Ball Drop in Times Square. The annual celebration marking the turn of the year is one of the most anticipated events in New York City — but it’s no easy feat to clean up the staggering amount of refuse left over from the festivities. 
Last week, the NYC Department of Sanitation told amNewYork that it expected to clear more than 50 tons of trash within the one-square-mile where the celebration is held, anything from party hats and streamers to piles of paper-thin confetti (roughly 3,000 pounds of it).

The herculean effort takes quite a crew: 294 sanitation workers went to work shortly after the ball dropped, and were equipped with 30 mechanical brooms, 58 backpack blowers, 45 collection trucks and 58 old-fashioned hand brooms. The clean-up generally takes anywhere from 12-16 hours to complete — certainly an impressive feat to say the least.
Next, check out the Secrets of the New Year’s Eve Ball Drop in Times Square and the Evolution of the New Year’s Eve Ball.