Dive Brief:
- 130,000 people who came out for Comin-Con, an annual entertainment convention for fans of comics held in San Diego, CA, left behind 23 tons of garbage.
- Crews cleaned up about six times the usual amount of waste they usually pick up, splitting the workload into three shifts. Workers generally clear away seven tons of waste per week.
- Employees picked up 18,622 fliers and posters and cleared away 4,949 stickers.
Dive Insight:
The massive amount of trash is not unusual for a large event like Comic Con. Mardi Gras, held annually in New Orleans, LA, draws huge crowds that throw an estimated 25 million pounds of beads into the streets during the celebration. An organization, Arc, collects and recycles beads, then re-sells the Mardi Gras trinkets back to consumers. The group recycled 120,000 pounds of beads in 2013.
