Four skips full of laughing gas canisters cleaned up after Notting Hill Carnival

2 September 2022, 16:21 | Updated: 2 September 2022, 19:42

Notting Hill Carnival cleaners are on the way to filling four skips with used laughing gas canisters, with a "mind-blowing" 3.5 tonnes collected from the streets so far.

A team of 200 cleaners working for Kensington and Chelsea Council are having to collect the nitrous oxide canisters separately to other rubbish, as there is a risk they could explode.

Nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, is used as an anaesthetic in medical and dental procedures to help a patient relax - however experts point to a rise in young people using the drug recreationally.

The carnival ended on Monday 29th August, with most areas returned to normal by Wednesday 1st September, but some jet washing and clear up has continued until today - in part because of the requirement to collect the gas canisters separately.

Gary O’Hagan, in charge of the Notting Hill clean-up operation for SUEZ Recycling and Recovery UK, said: "SUEZ has been carrying out the Carnival clear-up for the council for many years. We have a tried and tested operational plan for what is one of the biggest clean-up operations in Europe.

"The number of large nitrous oxide canisters we are seeing this year is mind-blowing and they are causing a real problem for our crews. The canisters have to be hand separated from the general waste as they can explode if compacted, posing a serious health and safety risk.

"This has significantly slowed down the operation and we will have to re-think the collection method next year. By Friday it is likely that we will have filled four skip containers with over a thousand or more canisters."

Notting Hill Carnival returned to West London's streets over the August bank holiday weekend, for the first time since 2019 following years of disruption caused by the pandemic.

The event, known for its music, food and parades, celebrates Caribbean culture and usually has an attendance of around two million people.

Kensington and Chelsea councillor Emma Will, in charge of culture, leisure and community, said: "Carnival is a wonderful reflection of our, diverse, multi-cultural community but we also want to return the streets back to normal as soon as possible, with minimal disruptions."

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Earlier this week Ken Marsh, the chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, told LBC's Nick Ferrari that the way the carnival was hosted needed to change, adding that police had stopped hundreds of fights during the event.

"I think it should be stopped yesterday," he said.

"I think it should be in a private area, Hyde Park, etcetera, where it can be fenced off, people can be controlled… you cannot have a situation where we talk about 1.5m, 2m [people attending].

"We don't have the resources to deal with it. This is tens of millions of pounds of public money that is spent on policing this.

"We've seized dozens of knives over the course of the two days, we've stopped probably 200 or 300 fights, small, sporadic fights. This is not a fun-loving weekend - 98 per cent of people who go there are law-abiding and want to enjoy themselves ... there is an element which go for one reason.

"That is to cause harm to others and that is not stopping.

"This is absurd, this cannot continue."