Crews Fight, Defeat 23 Tons of Comic-Con-Goers’ Garbage

Cleaning up after San Diego Comic-Con is a challenge fit for a superhero.

But since no person with an incredible trash-clearing ability was on hand, the Downtown San Diego Partnership had to beef up its Clean & Safe Crew with an around-the-clock schedule.

And they had their work cut out for them as they realized the 130,000 people dressed as superheroes, villains or pop culture icons produce a Hulkish amount of trash.

Doing six times their normal workload, the crews cleared 23.05 tons of trash from downtown streets over the four-day Comic-Con -- about six times the amount they usually pick up.

Workers split into three shifts emptied trash cans 3,368 times (which is about three times more than normal), cleaned up 18,622 fliers and posters and removed 4,949 stickers.

The Downtown Partnership says to put that in perspective, the Clean & Safe crew typically takes away seven tons of trash and empties garbage cans 2,000 times over a seven-day period.

“The Clean & Safe employees maneuvered through hundreds of thousands of Comic-Con attendees and spectators to pick up trash, stickers and other debris left behind, ensuring that the annual event did not negatively impact the community and Downtown property owners,” said the crew’s Executive Director Bahija Hamraz in a release.