San Diego Comic-Con Draws Record Crowds, Trash

SAN DIEGO, CA — The record 135,000 attendees at Comic-Con International last week not only left behind their money at hotels and restaurants, but a whole lot of trash.

The Downtown San Diego Partnership reported Wednesday that workers on the organization's Clean & Safe team emptied around 6,720 bags of trash from Wednesday to Sunday — seven times more than a normal five-day period.

The bags contained 25 tons of refuse, about two times more than average, according to the partnership.

"Clean & Safe works 365 days a year, 24 hours a day to keep downtown beautiful for residents and visitors," said Alonso Vivas, who directs team operations. "When Comic-Con International descends on downtown, our goals remain the same, but our workload certainly increases."

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The team also logged 1,035 graffiti removal responses, about five times more than average, and picked up 25,310 fliers, posters and stickers, around 22 times more than average.

According to the partnership, the Clean and & Safe team generally removes 13 tons of trash and collects 930 bags of trash during a five-day period. During that amount of time, they also normally remove graffiti 190 times and get rid of 1,150 fliers, stickers and posters.

The team also provides safety patrols and escorts throughout downtown.

— City News Service

(Patch file photo)