Aftermath of New Year celebrations

So we were over at the Friedensengel for the countdown. An hour into the new year, people started leaving and there were lots of broken glass, empty bottle and plastic bags on the floor -- litter everywhere.

Later we walked over to Odeonsplatz and Marienplatz, through Viktualienmarkt towards Schranenhalle, and it was the same -- litter everywhere. Today it's still litter everywhere in the city, lots of broken glass too.

I'm sure you've seen it too.

Questions:

1) This seems like the worst litter the city has ever seen, even more than Oktoberfest - is it true?

2) Is this the same as every year???

3) I know some folks were too drunk to care, but if there were huge black trash plastic bags everywhere -- especially places where lots of folks would gather (e.g. Friedensengel or Marienplatz), then I'm sure about 50% of the bunch would gladly dispose their litter properly, thereby (a) Munich would enter into the new year more beautiful, ( b ) it would cost the city less money to clean up afterwards -- or do they want to create more cleaning jobs???

Photos:



[img]http://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/uploads/1136154488/med_gallery_3324_478_27844.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/uploads/1136154488/med_gallery_3324_478_467919.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/uploads/1136154488/med_gallery_3324_478_303130.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/uploads/1134845167/med_gallery_3324_478_350462.jpg[/img]

More proof:
[img]http://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/uploads/1134845167/med_gallery_3324_478_263346.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/uploads/1134845167/med_gallery_3324_478_29609.jpg[/img]

Thats pretty normal from what I remember. You usually get the "red mud", if it has been wet, from all the red firecrackers being let off.

I don't see a problem with it, its always spotless again in a day or two.

@Tom17: guess the red mud is okay -- in Chinese countries that celebrate Chinese New Year, it's even considered good luck to leave the red stuff lying on the ground for a few days.

But now we're talking broken glass and plastics. Are car tyres in danger? Walking through the city, I thought my sneakers would be punctured if they could be.

Seeing as my deutsch is still infantile, how about someone else from TT write a civic-minded e-mail/letter to the Mayor and ask him whether he can simply provide some trash bags for the next crazy event? (clear see-through ones please to prevent risk of some idiot stuffing in a bomb)

I guess you're right -- it's just that since Sat evening, the city cleaners aren't working, hopefully they're gone after today. *shrug*

the city workers were out in force in Deggendorf on Jan 1 cleaning up the mess, benefits of SMALL town living I guess

Come on, it was a party after all! And the Germans do a good job IMO on the cleanup anyway. As an analogy, after a big dinner party do you immediately wash the dishes?

my parents do
they'll whip the plate out from under your nose before you've even finished sometimes
parents, eh?

LMHO! :-)

I store this thread for future use...nyanyanya

why are you storing it for future reference? don't understand

anyway, i don't agree that they should clear up on Jan 1st already. it's only one flippin day for heaven's sake. if you're worried about your sneakers then wear sturdier footwear, innit.

don't particularly like the plastic bag idea, either.
i doubt very much that they'll get used as intended
sorry

I really can't see the point of this thread, of course after a big celebration like that there is going to be lots of litter about, it is like pointing out that lots of people might have hangovers on New Years Day.

i'm still hungover today from new year's eve

Most litter does get picked up on the day from the big main streets. The other stuff will take around a week to be completely gone.

The point is that is is rare to see Munihc so messy, and is therefore all the more surprising for peeps who ain'T seen it before. Those photos posted do not even vaguely do justice to the aftermath IMO.
I got home to Hochbruck at 1.45 ish, and even out here there was firework debris everywhere, and a kind of mist of smoke over the area.
I personnally went through puberty fucking years ago, and see no joy in lighting massive strings of bangers. BANG BANG BANG! Wow! fun! Noises!! Other fireworks are OK I suppose.
I've always balked more at the danger of hundreds of kids setting up mock battlefields across roads, and firing rockets at each other than I have at any mess.

It's just that the Germans are such a regimented uptight bunch, that they go OTT on the one night a year when they are allowed to make a mess.
I call it the Raffles syndrome, which needs an explanation;
In Singapore, litter is not allowed anywhere lah. However, there is one bar in Raffles Hotel where people eat monkey nuts, and are allowed to drop the shells on the floor. So EVERYONE seems to go out of their way to chuck as many damned shells on the floor as possible, merely because they can. Same phenom.

I think why8 spent way too much time in Singapore which in my opinion is one of the cleanest places in the world.

If this what you call dirty, then everyday is a New Year day in most cities in the world.

It's clean, yes, but the word "sterile" is perhaps more suited.

.fasching tuesday makes it two times a year they are allowed to make a mess

there must be a bug/virus going around. I'm still feeling a touch under the weather myself.

(for those that need the obvious pointed out: )

@Tom17 and the rest: totally agree, it's maybe coz I'm not so used to seeing so much litter everywhere. And yes, maybe I've been in Singapore for too long, I have the Raffles syndrome.

If everyone's happy with litter, I'm not gonna complain. I just think Munich is a great city, clean and safe (a lot like that island in the tropics) so it's a bit of a pity when it's all dirty and all...

AND I was thinking about the danger of broken glass et al to the cars and little kids walking about. And the cold doggies out and about for a walk...

My shoes are pretty sturdy, have been crunching broken glass all over the city. No punctures yet...

1, Totally agree - they do.
2, Yes. Not only a big dinner party, but everyday. Don't you???
Cheers, Happy New Year, Lupo.

FFS, it's a once a year event you know, it'll be gone in a couple of days!

I actually agree with Why8. It was pretty damn filthy out there, and I never even ventured out to some of the real warzones like Marienplatz. The fireworks and general garbage I can kind of overlook, but all the shattered glass is kind of a problem. My area of Neuhausen stayed pretty clean, but I saw some people out on New Year's day trying to walk their dogs in Schwabing, and having to be really vigilant so that the animals didn't hurt themselves. Plus everything then gets covered in a nice layer of snow, so you can't see what you're walking on until you've got a shard of glass in your shoe.

Silly Germans. So tidy 364 days a year, then you give them an inch of leeway and they smash bottles all over the damn place. Hope it's at least all put into the proper recycling bin.

Answers:

1) Nope. You should have seen Ludwigstr./Leopaldstr. after Bayern Munchin' won the Champions League final. Knee deep in beer bottles and cans PLUS the remains of the fireworks. Jammy bastards!

2) Yep.

3) Job creation? Very probably. The only problem with all the mess occuring on the evening of the 31st is that it won't (for the most part) get touched until the 2nd. A few hours later today and it will be spotless as per usual.

they would have to pay all the street cleaners double time to start cleaning up on Jan 1st, anyway
better to leave it in a mess for one day than to bankrupt the bleedin place for the sake of 24 hours

actually, thinking about it, a cleaner's wage bill will likely not bankrupt munich, but still there are better things to spend the dosh on, imho

thanks georgiagirl.

To be honest, I had some champagne bottles on me and some leftover fireworks stuff -- over at the Friedensengel. Was looking around for a rubbish bin to dispose of them, would have happily celebrated the new year, get tipsy and clean up. But no rubbish bin was to be found anywhere... and I didn't want to bring them all the way home with U-bahn to dispose...

Maybe I've to bring along some trash bags next year...

No, no, no. Chuck them on the floor. Its the one time of the year that you are not gonna be berated or nicked for doing so. Thats why everyone in Germany does it, its the thrill of being "naughty". Tee hee! BANG! BANG! BANG! Tee hee!

I loves Sylvester for this Don. Only time of the year that you can roll the dirty greatest biggest fuck-off monster banger under a pig mobile and watch the buggers jump... with full immunity. Loveahbitofit!

I can take it or leave it to be honest. My missus loves fireworks, seriously adores them. Me, I have almost no opinion. Firing rockets at police vans is, admittedly, quite excellent, especially when fuelled with the high spirits of new year though, it is true. Mess never bothers me, know it'll all be gone. Once ruined a shoe by something blowing up under my foot, but that was more amusing than anything else.
Best thing about fireworks this year? My dog did not give a monkeys. Had him out in the city at midnight itself, and he did not care in the least about the noise. Somebody lobbed a string of bangers into the road near him, and he did not even seem to actually notice. Fan-bloody-tastic.

It's worth pointing out for anyone who has not had the pleasure of meeting Don's dog that he is in fact both blind and deaf. Don is a fully trained seeing-eye person.

But only since I thought it would be ace to take him out to a massive firework carnage night in Munich, obviously.

Don, cool dog. Can I meet him at the next TT outing?

Btw what does he do about broken glass all over the city? Did you modify his paws too?

From what I heard he's that tough that he chews it up and spits it out at Singaporean ManYoo supporters. No word of a lie.

I do agree there aren't enough bins in Munich generally, the ones at the Isar are woefully inadequate when its BBQ season.

If you walk around Fraunhoferstr/Han-sach-str/Jahnstr/Klenzestr area, there's very often litter everywhere.

Any idea why they won't place more rubbish bins in Munich?
Note: I'm assuming the Germans are clever and practical people here

I am beginning to get worried about Why8. He seems to have an obsession for litter and garbage bins. Were you attacked by a litter monster when you were a kid why8?

Why8 never go to Portland. Oregon my friend you would hate it there.

Sadly yes... it looked a lot like this (left hand side monster only; right hand side = beauty):

[img]http://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/uploads/1130942070/gallery_3851_419_14978.jpg[/img]

@perdido - hey man, do you have any photos of the litter situation in Regensburg?

That's VERY "local"

We have a high population density anyway, not so much open space and we are one of THE areas to go out in Munich with more liscensed premises than anywhere else. The population massively increases at the weekends and weekday nights. So lots of cig packets, bottles, takeaway wrappers etc. Apart from the U-Bahn station there's probably only 1 or 2 litter bins in the whole Viertel. The streets are generally cleaned every other day or so but there's always going to be some generation of litter.

The WORST thing that has become much more of a problem locally in the last few years is dog shit.

As Germany has tended since 1945 not to invade and bomb other countries there is less of the problem of having bins compared to the UK. I THINK it is becasue the city would have to make a huge capital investment, have the bins reguarly emptied and potentially rubbish sorted and it is cheaper to expect people to take their rubbish home and/or generally sweep the streets.

Your reasoning is weak Monkstown. My area of Schwabing/Maxvorstadt has a high population and is also a very popular area for going out. Yet it rarely strikes me as being dirty here.

And this from the country that spends lots of Euros to demolish old apartments especially in former East Germany (e.g. East Berlin and Leipzig) so as to "reduce the eyesore"???

I've said it many times before (mostly in private): The Germans are crazy. (ok, for PC reasons, only the bad balding politicians, the ladies are quite nice actually... )

Central London is much worse for rubbish bins, yes I know there are reasons for that.

A couple years ago in a bid to save money the city of Portland took away all the trash bins in the city parks. The idea was that peeps would carry away their own garbage so the city would not have to pay to keep it clean... a month later the city returned the trash cans. I do not know if it was because peeps mistaking the parks for a public garbage dump, the roaming dog bands running the park, or both.

@why8

Ugh no. I was in Munich and my film is used for other things besides the trash bins

Actually Monks Town's reasoning is not as weak as one might think. I still remember having to get used to living in North Sydney where the council did not provide street bins on the basis of the cost savings. That took some getting used to and it was bloody irritating in the first few months of traversing the streets in search of the elusive litter bin until someone enlightened us. Strangely enough there was not excessive litter on the ground so I guess you get used to anything if you have too.

I do think is Munich is less clean than it used to be generally though; perhaps I'm just getting old and grumpy.

Sometimes in a fit of frustration, I wish they'd release the Singaporean cleanliness on Munich (and a lot other cities too actually, e.g. Paris) and then we'd have nice clean toilets and streets. Oh no, what's happening to me!!! ARGGGHHHh...

*shake it off*

Do they really save money by removing all those trash bins? Doesn't it cost less in time and money (assuming cleaners are paid by the hour) for them to just change the trash bags in rubbish bins than to sweep broken glass off the streets? Not to mention the damage done to cars and bicycles and doggie paws?

Wasn't paying attention to the streets today, is it all cleaned up already?

minga.de says that 27 tonnes of rubbish were collected during the street cleaning after new years, 5 tonnes from the Friedensengel!

That engel must have been on dodgy curry.

I agree with Why8- I don't understand why people cannot clean up alot of their crap after themselves. Take your bottles back inside to recycle and clean up as much as your paper from the fireworks as possible- god, they come in a bag- shove everything back in that bag and thru it in the bin. Easy, then we don't have to worry about someone else- like a city worker on NewYears Day getting double time to clean up lazy asses crap.

I left an empty bottle of champagne and a couple of plastic cups on the side of the road. Why? Because I was half-twaddled and at the time environmental cleanliness was the last thing on my mind. I also left as half-full bottle of Augie on a window-sill for exactly the same reason.


Was not and am not in the least bit worried about it. If I give it a few seconds thought then I consider that I am at the very least helping to provide employment for some of our moustachioed eastern European brethren.

No "moustachioed eastern European" cleaned up your Augie bottle, I did. No double pay for it either. No single pay even.