New Yorkers Complete City’s Biggest Volunteer Cleanup Ever During Weeklong Great Broadway Sweep

September 22, 2023

Volunteers wearing black t-shirts with the We Love NYC logo carry green trash bags walking through a NYC street.
Volunteers wearing black t-shirts with the We Love NYC logo carry green trash bags walking through a NYC street.
Volunteers wearing black t-shirts with the We Love NYC logo carry green trash bags walking through a NYC street.

New Yorkers Complete City’s Biggest Volunteer Cleanup Ever During Weeklong Great Broadway Sweep

Hundreds of Volunteers Collected Thousands of Pounds of Trash Along the 13-Mile Stretch of The World’s Greatest Street

The Sanitation Foundation Partnered with WE❤️NYC for the Weeklong Cleanup, Awarding a $5,000 Grant to the Inwood/Washington Heights Clean Teams During a Times Square Celebration with City Leaders and Clean Team Ambassador Andy Cohen

Video and photos can be accessed here, courtesy Sanitation Foundation

Broadway, The World’s Most Famous Street, became one of the world’s cleanest streets during The Great Broadway Sweep, which concluded today in Times Square. The weeklong effort by volunteer neighborhood Clean Teams up and down Broadway collected thousands of pounds of trash in what was New York City’s biggest volunteer cleanup ever.

The Sanitation Foundation is the official non-profit partner of the New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) and hosted the cleanup across Broadway’s 13-mile span through Manhattan in collaboration with WE❤️NYC and DSNY. WE❤️NYC is a campaign funded by the members of the Partnership for New York City to encourage New Yorkers to show their love for their city through civic action and community engagement.

The Great Broadway Sweep began at the start of the week on both the north and south ends of Broadway, meeting at week’s end in Times Square for a final cleanup and celebration. Residents and businesses, community leaders, and popular personalities including Clean Team Ambassador Andy Cohen cleaned their communities each day.

“It was an amazing feeling coming together with other New Yorkers to clean up the world’s greatest street,” said media personality and Clean Team Ambassador Andy Cohen, who joined with other popular influencers to support the effort. “There’s no doubt that New Yorkers can pick up trash as well as they can talk it.”

In celebration of the achievement, the Sanitation Foundation awarded a $5,000 grant for neighborhood cleanup initiatives to the week’s top neighborhood Clean Teams from Inwood/Washington Heights.

The Great Broadway Sweep was made possible through support provided by Amazon, Colgate-Palmolive, Deloitte, EY, Goldman Sachs, KPMG, New York Life Foundation, NYC Service, PwC, Swiss Re, and The Shubert Organization.

About the Sanitation Foundation

The Sanitation Foundation is the official non-profit partner of the New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY). Our mission is to support the work of the DSNY to clean up the city and reduce waste sent to landfill. We foster innovative public/private partnerships with DSNY, city residents, businesses, elected officials, schools and community organizations to achieve our shared vision. We celebrate the hard work of DSNY and the essential workforce. Together, we engage New Yorkers in making NYC a cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable city for all New Yorkers. For more information, visit sanitationfoundation.org

About the New York City Department of Sanitation

The Department of Sanitation (DSNY) keeps New York City clean, safe, and healthy by collecting, recycling, and disposing of waste, cleaning streets, attacking the scourge of illegal dumping, and clearing snow and ice. The Department operates 59 district garages and manages a fleet of more than 2,000 rear-loading collection trucks, 450 mechanical brooms, 705 salt spreaders, and several dozen bike lane operations machines. Under the Adams Administration, the Department is aggressively cleaning more parts of the City than ever before, including over 1,000 long-ignored areas spread across every neighborhood, as well as cleaning the highways and managing graffiti removal.

About WE❤️NYC

WE❤️NYC is a cross-sector campaign to showcase the city’s strengths and mobilize New Yorkers to make sure this remains the greatest city in the world. The citywide campaign celebrates New Yorkers who are making a difference -- the Do-ers -- and features opportunity for civic engagement that everyone can join. No taxpayer dollars were used for this effort, and all New Yorkers are invited to get involved at welovenyc.nyc

Media Contacts:

Chris Weiller, Sanitation Foundation, 917-816-7900, chris.weiller@gmail.com

Kayla McCullough, WE❤️NYC, 214-794-0886, kmccullough@rubenstein.com 

© 2024 New York City Partnership Foundation

© 2024 WE❤️NYC is a trademark owned by the New York State Department of Economic Development

© 2024 New York City Partnership Foundation

© 2024 WE❤️NYC is a trademark owned by the New York State Department of Economic Development

© 2024 New York City Partnership Foundation

© 2024 WE❤️NYC is a trademark owned by the New York State Department of Economic Development