City cleansing workers in global clean sweep

12 April 2011

The City of Sydney's hard working street cleansing and waste staff have gone global after sprucing up roads and footpaths equivalent to the entire earth's circumference in less than a year.

City sweepers cleaned over 46,800kms of roads and footpaths - more than a trip around the world of 40,008kms.

The mammoth task was completed by 250 full time Council staff, working day and night to keep our city sparkling.

"The City's Cleansing and Waste unit has been cleaning 900kms of roads and footways every week over the past year and they do a fantastic job," City of Sydney Director of Operations Garry Harding said.

"That's the equivalent of a trip around the world and is quite an achievement.

"They ensure that our streets are gleaming, which is so important in projecting Sydney's image as a major global city, and the gateway to the rest of Australia.

"We're proud of the fact we have the largest street cleansing operation of any council.

"Our $100m maintenance budget provides residents and ratepayers with a city they can continue to be proud of.

'While Sydney sleeps, our Cleansing and Waste staff work hard to provide quality service and value for money for our ratepayers.

"We will never compromise on the level of service we provide to our own residents and ratepayers."

In January, a convoy of City of Sydney cleansing vehicles and more than 30 specialist staff travelled to Brisbane to help Queenslanders with the massive post-flood cleanup.

The 34 vehicles which included garbage trucks, excavators, backhoes, tipper trucks and utes travelled north after Brisbane City Council accepted the City's offer for extra resources in the recovery effort.

During two weeks of operations, over 6,000 cubic metres of rubbish was collected or more than four Olympic swimming pools full.

Around 345 of the City's cleansing, waste and parks staff, who went into action after the recent world's greatest fireworks celebration around Sydney Harbour, collected 56 tonnes of waste after the large crowds dispersed. About 80 per cent of that waste was recycled.

In the past 12 months, Council also removed 376,094 graffiti tags and bill posters across the City, at a cost of $2.3m.

That graffiti covered an area of almost 60,000 square metres, or the equivalent of 10 footy fields.

"We're leading the way in creating a global image for our wonderful city," Mr Harding said.

"New York City's Planning Commissioner, Amanda Burden was in town a few weeks ago and she said we were streets ahead of New York when it came to greening.

"She was impressed with how green and clean Sydney is and is overseeing a plan to plant 1 million new trees in New York.

"And she said she'd learned some valuable lessons in how we utilise our world famous harbour and activate the waterfront."

For more information contact: Ebony Beaton, Senior Media Officer on (02) 9246 7298 or 0438 724 048 or ebeaton@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au