Massive carnival celebrations in Brazil mean massive clean up

World Today

Carnival season is winding down in Brazil. Now the not-so-fun part is the clean up.

Rio de Janeiro is picking up the pieces, and the trash, after hundreds of street parties. And that means big business for some.

Lucrecia Franco reports from Rio de Janeiro.
Follow Lucrecia C. Franco on Twitter @LucreciaFranco

Known as the world’s Carnival capital, Rio de Janeiro is trying to keep the city clean while it hosts some 500 street parties and the famed Samba School Parade.
The official carnival runs from Feb. 5th to the 9th, producing tons of excess waste, and some recyclables.

It is one of Rio’s main sources of pride, but the famous Samba School’s Parade also creates a sea of empty beer cans, plastic bottles and other trash.

After each dance school passes to perform for the crowds, squads of garbage collectors rush in to sweep the avenues for the next group of dancers.

‘Litterbugs’ are also present at the street parties, a total of 505 separate celebrations this year. Millions people take to the streets to dance, sing and drink beer.

Aluminum provides a livelihood for informal waste pickers, and profits for the owners of recycling businesses like Tiago Barreto, that has purchased 16 tons of recyclable trash so far.

For the city’s cleaning company, it’s the opposite. Carnival means extra trash and literally tons of extra work.