No matter where you go in the United States, as long as there are roads it can be argued (very convincingly so) that road sweeping services are not only a nicety, but a necessity. Road sweeping services are certainly not new either, dating back, in some form or another, for hundreds of years in the history of our country. In fact, the first machines that were used for road sweeping services were developed at the beginning of the nineteenth century, in the early 1800’s. These machines were certainly not like the ones that are in use today, but they set the pattern for keeping our roads clean and free from the debris and the pollutants that would otherwise clog them. It was C.S. Bishop who made this possible, as he was the man, the inventor, who first created a mechanical street sweeping machine before the of 1850.

In the years since and into the modern age, street sweeper trucks have remained of considerable important in the society of the United States (and in many other developed parts of the world), as road sweeping services have a number of calculable and quantifiable benefits. For one, road sweeping services are adept at removing pollutants from the streets, both the large pollutants as well as those that are microscopic and cannot be seen with the naked human eye. The larger pollutants, such as paper and leaves, are hazardous when left unattended, as they can accumulate and clog the gutters and storm water drains, which can lead to significant flooding during periods of heavy rain, if they are not removed on a regular basis. And so sweeper trucks perform an important service in their weekly – or even often daily, depending on where in the United States it is that you live – removal.

And microscopic pollutants can not be overlooked either. Microscopic pollutants are often comprised of bacteria, which can compromise the quality of the water in a community as well as lead to the spread of disease. Microscopic pollutants also include those found in run off. Run off, which refers to the melting and accumulation of snow and rainwater that is washed off of roads and into facilities such as parking lots, often contains significant pollutants in and of itself, most commonly pesticides and lead (both of which can have a detrimental impact on human health if the exposure to such pollutants is high enough as well as prolonged enough). Other pollutants found on roadways that are not cleaned and swept frequently enough include oil, grease, and other such toxic chemicals that originate from cars, as well as road salts during the winter months. Though such pollutants can originate and accumulate anywhere in the country, they are most often found in densely populated urban and metropolitan regions, such as big cities.

Fortunately, street sweeping such as road sweeping services as well as parking lot sweeping can make a huge impact in the levels of pollutants that the members of the community are exposed to. In fact, road sweeping services are so effective that they remove tons of debris every single year from a vast number of communities, both large and small, all throughout the United States. This generated nearly three hundred million dollars worth of revenue for street sweeping services such as road sweeping services and parking lot cleaners.

No matter where you go in the United States – and even in many countries beyond its borders – the cleanliness of roads is hugely important not only to the overall appearance of a community, but to the health of its members. In communities large and small alike, from big cities to rural American towns, the importance of clean and well kept roads does not dwindle.