Vappu revellers behaved themselves fairly well in Helsinki

Capital emerged from traditionally rowdy weekend with fewer clear-up costs than last year

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The rather chilly weather over the weekend may have been a contributory factor, but Helsinki escaped from this year's Vappu (May Eve and May Day) celebrations with a smaller pile of garbage to clear up than the city officials faced last year.
      In 2008, the city shelled out EUR 121,000 to clean up the additional mess caused by untidy revellers. Not surprisingly, by Sunday no precise figure was available for this year’s cleaning costs, but one thing was clear: the trend seemed to go towards less garbage strewn everywhere, estimates Project Manager Elina Nummi from the City of Helsinki's Public Works Department.
      ”I can give a grade of 7.5 [on a scale for 4 (fail) to 10]. That's quite good, if last year’s grade was a 4”, Nummi adds.
     
According to Deputy Mayor Pekka Sauri, the previous trouble spot, the Kaivopuisto Park, was this year in clearly better shape than previously.
      ”The city looks quite different from the situation in last couple of years. People obviously put their rubbish into bins more often, and no particular queues could be noticed for toilets, either”, Sauri reports.
      The 60 cleaners taking part in the cleaning of parks did not have to work so hard as in the past years, confirms even Nummi.
      ”This year there was no need to work late into the night. There was no such massive carpet of rubbish here as before”, Nummi notes.
      The number of trash bin fires was only four, compared with more than a dozen in previous years. Moreover, the amount of broken glass in parks was smaller than before, while the collectors of sparkling wine bottles managed to save a total of 30,000 unbroken bottles.
     
The uncomfortably cool weather does look to have been one of the reasons for the fairly clean post-Vappu condition of the City. Kaivopuisto and other ”general party parks” including the Sinebrychoff Park, Kaisaniemi Park, Alppi Park, and the Old Church Park (also known as the Pest Park), gathered celebrants as normal, but many of them did not stay around for a picnic. Only experienced Vappu celebrants could enjoy the windy weather rather longer.
      This year, the capital was also better prepared for the Vappu celebrations. In fact, 184 portable toilets and 24 urinals had been reserved for the use of the May Day revellers. Preparing for the additional garbage load, the City of Helsinki also provided a record number of new kind of rubbish bins with a capacity of 3.5 cubic metres each. The total capacity of the provided bins was 574,000 litres - and it seems they were put to good use.
     
Sauri and Nummi even dare to believe that the lower than usual garbage load might tell us something about a gradual change in attitudes. General awareness about the downstream costs of revelling has increased.
      ”Talk about the city being a home for all of us has gradually been absorbed”, Sauri assumes.
      We are taking small steps towards the point at which people begin to take care of the communal environment”, notes Nummi.
      On the other hand, there is still room for improvement left for next year. Nummi reported that the distribution of advertising balloons got out of hand, and after the celebrations, thousands of helium balloons were hanging from trees in Helsinki’s parks.
      As before, even this year some eager celebrants had brought with them props, including marquees and furniture, which ended up in dumpsters.
      Recent years have seen a kind of picknickers' "arms race" in some quarters, with the old blanket-on-the-grass replaced by complex arrangements of tables and chairs and proper plates and cutlery.
     
When it comes to police statistics, this Vappu was a relatively peaceful one. In Helsinki, Vappu did not differ from a normal weekend, reported the Helsinki Police Department, in spite of the increased numbers of people who were out and about, and also the conspicuous consumption of alcohol-containing refreshments.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Vehicle traffic will be limited in certain central Helsinki areas for May Day celebrations (30.4.2010)

Helsingin Sanomat