How many people actually get annoyed when they get stuck behind a street sweeper? They drive slowly and they’re big and block traffic and get in the way. Plus, parking lot sweeping prices are probably outrageous and street sweeper trucks are sure to be old and unsafe, aren’t they? It’s easy to be negative about road sweeping services. However, you aren’t paying the parking lot sweeping prices, you aren’t driving the trucks so what does it matter to you really? In fact, these parking lot sweeping prices are being paid so that you can enjoy a cleaner and better life. Here are just a few things that are avoided because of these cleaners.

Sickness
If some of the things that people toss out were allowed to fester in the roads, there would be a lot of sickness and disease that would be roaming around our world. When certain materials decompose, they give off toxic gases that are released into our atmosphere. Not only are these dangerous for humans and other living things to breathe in, these gases will cause holes to be burned into the ozone layer. Little by little they will eat away at our world until there is literally nothing left for us to live in. Plus, when some materials are crossed with combustible materials, they can actually blow up which would cause a lot of fires and ash which would also be breathed in and cause more illness and disease.

Pollution and Litter
Pollution and litter come from humans, unfortunately. Without street sweepers, the things that people throw out of their car windows and on to the street would simply collect and build until they were completely out of control. Could you imagine living in a litter infested community? There would be a lot of repercussions for this. Sickness and disease has already been mentioned but our world’s shelf life would be shortened as well as a number of other things.

Wild Animals
Rodents and other unscrupulous animals are attracted to waste. The colors and the smells bring them into civilized areas if the litter is allowed to sit for too long. They also bring disease with them. By cleaning up the debris and waste that is in the streets, you avoid the smells attracting wild animals that could hurt residents through sickness as well as bites and scratches. Having wild animals roaming the town could make it impossible for residents to even leave their homes at times. Society as we know it would come to an end as socialization became a thing of the past.

Dangerous Driving Conditions
Even now, if there is a branch or a fallen box in the road, drivers swerve to miss it. Other drivers and pedestrians that are around have to react properly and get out of the way of the swerving driver. Imagine if that was every few feet and all drivers. There’d be so many accidents and fatalities. People would constantly be crashing into each other, trying to avoid things in the road.

Horrific Stench
You think sewers and factories stink up the place now? That is nothing compared to what the world would be like without street sweepers. At least the cleaners collect the waste and take it to designated areas. If they didn’t, the trash would be allowed to fester in the street and the smell would become increasingly unbearable. You might acclimate to the smell, but would you want to?

So, instead of complaining about parking lot sweeping prices, next time you see a street cleaner, thank them for their service. They really are some of the unsung heroes of our age. They keep our cities and communities pleasant to live in. Without them, we would be living in a dangerous, smelly, polluted, animal ridden town where everyone keeps getting sick and possibly dying. We have come a long way since the residents of towns used to dump their waste out their windows and into the water supply. We now know that those kinds of behaviors are what puts our species in danger of extinction. Believe it or not, street sweepers are some of the ones that really do keep us alive and civilized.