Street Sweepers Who Are They and What Do They Do?

A job that requires a massive amount of dedication and time is that of a street sweeper. It’s no surprise that sometimes a street sweepers job is never ending, what with the countless amounts of debris and trash that needs to be disposed of. A street sweeping service is not normally something we tend to think much about, unless we are a sweeper ourselves. But their job remains a vital and necessary part to keeping both our roads and environment clean.

Street sweepers have existed for many, man years, but mechanical street sweeper trucks didn’t come into play until the 19th century. C.S. Bishop invented the first mechanical sweeper in 1849. Now, mechanical brush street sweepers make up around 90% of street sweepers existing the United States today. Because of that, effective street and parking lot cleaners are capable of removing several tons of debris from cities streets every year. This not only keeps the roads, themselves, cleaner but it lowers pollutants in storm water runoff, which can include heavy metals and pesticides, viruses and bacteria, and oil and grease. Street sweeping trucks are useful in removing both large and small pollutants on city streets. This can also prevent flooding during heavy rains, as there is no debris blocking storm drains.

In particular, street sweeping becomes especially useful in parking lots. It keeps them clean, so as to better attract more customers to your business by keeping the exterior clean. Parking lot sweeping also helps save money, as parking lot pollutants in the United States today is somewhere between $4 billion and $20 billion in environmental and health damage each year. Investing in parking lot cleaners might not only help your business to thrive, but keep you healthy and save you money as well. It’s estimated that $283 million in revenue is gained from the street sweeping industry in the United States.

Street sweeping is a business we don’t normally tend to think that much about. It’s very easy to just see them as some type of garbage men, taking away unneeded trash. In fact, their job is much more important than most of us tend to think. They protect not only our streets, but our health, our wallet and our environment, all by making sure the streets don’t become too cluttered with debris.