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What are they wasting? Per the article, this is material that was already destined for the trash.

And now a million people get to enjoy it as an enhancement to their evening.

Right, but at the cost of throwing waste on the ground. I’m not arguing that it is harmful (i’d imagine it biodegrades pretty easily) but it seems flippant to me to assume zero impact.

Why do we enjoy fireworks? Party poppers? Potato canons? Streamers? Tinsel on Christmas trees?

It's fun and pretty, and sanitation apparently has no problems cleaning it all up afterwards.

This would come off as meaningful if you didn’t dismiss the environmental impact without even acknowledging its existence. I am not against celebrations like these so long as you can acknowledge their impact.... sanitation workers are not responsible for our actions, regardless of how content they are to clean the visible impacts from the streets.

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