Another successful 3-day Carnival – can you believe it was the 59th! – has been held in Notting Hill. There is always a substantial clean-up operation as the last revellers head home each night.
The three-day festival hosted around two million people, eating and dancing their way along 3.5 miles of Notting Hill’s streets. Westminster City Council worked throughout the whole event with partner Veolia to manage the cleanup operation and deployed 30 vehicles and 170 staff amongst the crowds to complete the challenging clear up.
On Sunday and Monday evenings the clean up started at around 10:30 pm, with the team working all night to complete the job. When Notting Hill locals woke on Tuesday morning, we trust they found no trace of the Carnival having taken place.
Initial calculations indicate that around 200 tonnes of rubbish were collected from the event and taken to Veolia’s London SELCHP Energy Recovery Facility. At this plant, the waste is used to deliver low carbon electricity and heat to local communities. In fact, the amount of recovered energy produced will have generated the equivalent power for every attendee to have watched the carnival’s television highlights.
Helder Branco, Senior Contract Manager for Veolia in Westminster said: “The Notting Hill Carnival is one of the biggest clear up events of the year and requires a real team effort to get the job done. I’m proud our team can bring both experience and culture to the day, and that all streets are swiftly returned to normal once the last steel drum is beat.”
Councillor Tim Mitchell, Cabinet Member for Environment and City Management, said:“An enormous operation kicks into action to clear and clean the streets and get transport moving as normal after Carnival. It is a challenge for our staff but each year council officers and Veolia do us proud. The transformation is amazing – Europe’s biggest street party to business as usual in just a few hours.”
If you are responsible for an existing or forthcoming street event in the Westminster City Council area, please do check out our Events Waste Management page on the Cleanstreets website.
