ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Street cleaners throughout the Netherlands took to the roads last week to embark on a massive clean-up operation following King's Day.

This year's event took place on April 28 and was celebrated by millions of revellers throughout the country. King's Day marks the birth of the Dutch King Willem-Alexander who ascended to the throne in 2013. He celebrated his 59th birthday on Monday.

The day is a national holiday and is marked by music, dancing, flea markets and funfairs nationwide, with much of the key action taking place in Amsterdam.

A crew of 485 sanitation workers manning 200 vehicles were brought in to clean up the capital city alone. Boats also needed to be deployed to remove up to 1,000kg of floating rubbish from Amsterdam's canals. And warnings were issued by extermination services about detritus being left on the streets for extended periods.

Municipal cleaner Mike Slendebroek said it was not uncommon to come across items such as T-shirts, watches and wallets among the King's Day debris.

"Partygoers lose all sorts of things during the festivities," he said. "We also come across people who aren't finished partying yet. They sometimes try to open the door of the sweeper when I'm working and want a ride."

The event generated mountains of rubbish including hundreds of thousands of plastic beer containers, crushed cans and shattered glass bottles. The debris also included fast-food wrappers and items of discarded food.

Around 3,540 cubic metres of waste was generated at this year's event, which was a slight increase on last year.