Let's Talk Trash
By LooeyVille
@LooeyVille (55)
United States
May 3, 2026 11:23am CST
The day after the Kentucky Derby is always a big clean-up day in the infield where the party-goers spent the day at the races.
Local organizations like school sports teams volunteer to clean up the mess left behind for donations to their causes. The clean-up effort is massive.
Last year they filled over 20,000 industrial sized trash bags with garbage. They found over 2,000 abandoned chairs (like canvas camp chairs or lounge chairs).
They usually find lots of empty alcohol bottles, various plastic and paper food waste, sometimes clothing, and sometimes unmentionables.
There were about 150,000 people attending the Kentucky Derby.
8 people like this
7 responses
@MarieCoyle (57832)
•
5h
I've been to the Derby with my Dad, but it's been years and years as he has been gone a long time now. Dad loved races, and the Indy 500 was his thing--he never missed it. He had a lot of friends who were into racing (Dad lived in Indy) and Dad also replaced and rebuilt engines--for several years he worked on a few of the race cars. But working in the pits wasn't really what he wanted to do, he wanted to go to the race and enjoy every second of it. We were always shocked about the mess after the race. I remember reading an article that at the time it took several weeks to clean it all up. It's so sad, the messes so many people leave.
2 people like this
@RasmaSandra (96888)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
5h
Glad they have people helping with the cleanup. That is a lot of trash.
2 people like this
@JudyEv (379092)
• Rockingham, Australia
32m
When we had our first Music Shack concert, I was worried about all the litter but I found one bottle top. That was it. lol
Of course, there were aonly about 80 people and all friends or friends of friends which probably made a difference.
@GardenGerty (168791)
• United States
47m
It would be so nice if people were responsible and cleaned up after themselves. That is a huge amount of trash.
