After the big party, comes the big cleanup. As hundreds of thousands of revellers headed home, sanitation workers moved into New York City’s Times Square to begin collecting the tons of garbage left behind.
Around 17 million pieces of confetti, weighing more than one ton, rained down on the square during the new year’s celebration. In a special tribute, the confetti carried the name of long-time New Year’s Eve host Dick Clark, who died in April. Some paper strips also had special hand-written New Year’s messages from visitors to the city. Work to clean up the square and remove crowd control barriers continued until daybreak.