Zürich cleaners clear 90 tonnes after Street Parade

Up to one million people attend Zürich’s Street Parade, leaving behind around 90 tonnes of waste, SRF reported. By Sunday morning, the city’s cleaning department has removed the rubbish from the streets.

Thomas Jörg, the Zürich city cleaning department’s operations manager, led the cleanup for the ninth time in 2026. The operation involved 160 employees, all working a 12-hour shift.

Jörg said the work was far from thankless. “The Street Parade and other large festivals are among the most rewarding tasks for the city cleaning department,” he told SRF. “When you start work, you can see what needs to be done. It is really cool to watch the amount of waste decrease. By morning, when the first pedestrians are out, everything is clean again.”

The team divided the city into five sectors and worked through them systematically. The organiser was responsible for cleaning the parade route, while the city department handled the public space outside it.

Jörg said the main priority was to complete the operation without accidents or incidents. The main roads needed to be reopened as soon as possible for trams, buses and private vehicles. The team then focused on Bahnhofstrasse and the railway stations.

Hot, dry weather makes the operation more difficult because people stay in the streets longer, complicating the use of cleaning machines and making it harder to maintain safety. Rain would reduce the smell of urine, Jörg said, although the cleaners preferred dry conditions for the actual work.

There is little opportunity for the team to join the celebrations. “With the machines and the work, we are mainly busy trying not to get in the way of the partygoers,” Jörg said.