Every night, the unprecedented Olympic crowds that flock to downtown Vancouver leave behind a small landfill's worth of trash – but you wouldn't know it, thanks to the city's overnight clean-up crew.
With approximately 150,000 revelers reported in the downtown core on Saturday night alone, sanitation workers have been pushed to their limits. Officials say they're picking up four tonnes of garbage per day.
"It's incredible, it's almost 100 times the amount of garbage we would normally get," said John Williams, Vancouver's sanitation operations manager. "If you'd seen it first thing in the morning versus what you see at 8 a.m. in the morning, it's like night and day."
To handle the increased trash loads, the city has more than tripled their daily staffing, from 50 sanitation engineers to roughly 180, and they've picked up a few tricks for future Vancouver events.
"We've brought in leaf blowers," Williams said. "That's made it much more efficient. We'll use it in the future for celebration of light cleanups and such."
Many residents and tourists have taken notice, Williams added, and expressed their gratitude for keeping the city pristine.
Marion Fazio was out near the intersection of Granville and Robson Streets on Monday morning, and said she was shocked at how clean it was.
"I couldn't believe it," she said. "I watched TV and you see the thousands of people, but you come down here and it's unbelievable. They're doing such a great job."
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Jon Woodward
