CHENNAI: Like every year, thousands converged on the Marina and Besant Nagar beaches to celebrate New Year, and like every year they went home happy leaving the ecologically sensitive zones defiled. Plastic bottles, beer cans, food waste, packets, scraps of paper, half-munched corn on the cob -the trash left behind by midnight revellers was as varied as their celebrations. And by the time it was morning, more than 20 tonnes of waste was rotting on the sands. Greater Chennai Corporation worked overtime to clear the mess made by revellers.On Sunday, 132 sanitation workers toiled to remove plastic and cardboard waste littered on the sands of Marina Beach , the service lane between the Triumph of Labour Statue and Lighthouse, and on the 4km stretch on Kamarajar Salai between Napier's Bridge and All India Radio office. A corporation worker said “plastic waste was strewn everywhere“.“We removed 12.3 tonnes of waste from the Marina,“ an official said.Teynampet zonal officials said they used 11 tricycles and 10 trucks to clear the waste.“There was a lot of food waste, including cake and sweets. Plastic waste was also signifi cant, especially celebration material. We collected a innumerable plastic water bottles and sachets as well,“ an official said.Corporation workers said this year there were fewer liquor bottles in the waste than usual. “Last year, bottles were a big issue.After the party, almost all glass bottles were smashed on the road or simply thrown away to the side. We had to manually scrape out smashed bottles from roads,“ a sanitation inspector from Teynampet zone said. “This time, police kept a strict vigil. There was not much partying on the sands of the beach either,“ he said.At Elliot's Beach, corporation workers estimated that they cleared up to 10 tonnes of waste. “All along the promenade, there were mounds of waste. The garbage bins could not hold all of it. We cleared waste from the road and streets by 10.30am,“ the Adyar zone conservancy inspector said.