Katz's video of the mess left behind at President Obama's swearing in ceremony definitely shows mounds of trash - but this is not uncommon in Washington DC for major events. I did not go downtown that day. I knew there were going to be hundreds of thousands of people and the transportation would be a big problem - and it was a very cold January day!

At just about every major event such as Fourth of July, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, New Years Eve - there are mountains of trash that are picked up.

A very interesting sidenote to the mountains of trash - contractors bid with the city of Washington DC to pick it up. The contractors pay the city for picking up the trash and then sell the trash to recyclers. Washington DC actually makes money off of the deal - but the contractors make a whole lot of money by their reselling the trash.