Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110

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UK Bank holiday's biggest clean-up

This year's Notting Hill Carnival - 11 times bigger than the Glastonbury festival - once again attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors to the streets of North Kensington. When Carnival stops a massive clean-up operation swings into play to have the streets clean by the next morning. This year over 320 tonnes of rubbish had to be cleared from the streets during the bank holiday weekend.

The Council's contractors, Suez, had over 200 people working into the early hours of Monday and Tuesday, in an operation involving more than 30 refuse trucks and mechanical sweepers. The team even used a large motorway vehicle to wash down the roads. The clean-up finished at 03:00 on Tuesday 1st September.

The teams were joined by the Mayor of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Cllr Elizabeth Rutherford and Cllrs Condon Simmonds, Rossi, Mackover, Allison and Healy.

Speaking after the clean-up operation, Cllr Tim Ahern, Cabinet Member for Environment & Leisure, said: "The challenge our Council officers and Suez face clearing up from one of Europe's biggest street parties is always astounding, but they always rise to it.

"I would like to thank the organisers, London Notting Hill Carnival Enterprise Trust, and all the staff from the Council, TfL, London Ambulance, Metropolitan Police and all the other agencies that are involved in helping ensure the event is fun and safe for everyone."

During the Carnival the Council encouraged revellers to recycle with tin and plastic exchange stations.

For the second year Suez and the Council ran a joint initiative with Alupro 'Every Can Counts' to encourage Carnival-goers to recycle their drinking cans. Every five empty cans delivered to the recycling point could be exchanged for a free soft drink.

Also involved in the clean-up operation was Westminster City Council, with the support of Veolia, whose teams were keen to recycle as much as they could. Split into 15 groups that were strategically spread out along the route, they separated out the recyclables, leaving the remainder to be converted into green energy. This went to the National Grid to power local London homes and was expected to generate in the region of 97,200 kWh of electricity and 19,600 kWh of heat, which is enough to power 80,000 hot showers or travel 84km on the Tube - four times the length of the Victoria line. Combined, this is equivalent to saving 54 tonnes of CO 2 emissions.

Vincent Masseri, Veolia's senior contract manager, states: "While the clean-up following Notting Hill Carnival represents a sizeable challenge, it's one we relish because it's a real team effort. We deal with the waste in the most sustainable way possible and ensure everything is spotless ahead of rush hour on Tuesday morning."

Cllr Melvyn Caplan, the Cabinet Member for City Management at Westminster City Council, says: "We are proud to support such an event and provide such an efficient clean-up service to get the streets tidy after one of Europe's biggest street parties. Through the hard work and commitment of our clean-up operatives you wouldn't know such a huge event had taken place, and I know residents and visitors appreciate their efforts to get the streets back to normal."

The waste from the weekend's celebrations mainly consisted of plastic bags, plastic bottles and food packaging. However, in addition to the 'expected' waste items, the cleaning teams always expect to find some usual objects...

The top five most unusual items found during Notting Hill Carnival are:

1. Papier m�ch� dragon
2. Feathered head dresses
3. Inflatable palm tree
4. Broken Samba drum
5. Coconuts

The five most common items found lining the route of Notting Hill Carnival are:

1. Caribbean flags
2. Chicken wings
3. Rum bottles, approx. 25,0003
4. Beer cans
5. Whistles

Households along the carnival route were also offered a free front garden and basement cleaning service.

Image courtesy of Talk Radio

www.rbkc.gov.uk / www.westminster.gov.uk

8th September 2016