KUALA LUMPUR: The party's over but while the hundreds of thousands of revellers went back home to enjoy their morning sleep-in after the night's New Year bash, hundreds of others had to stay up and clear the tracts of litter and mess that were left behind.

Soft drink cans, plastic water bottles, tissues, paper, plastic bags and food wrappers were strewn all over festive hotspots such as Dataran Merdeka, Dataran Putrajaya and Sungei Wang Plaza here.

Revellers at Dataran Merdeka, while leaving the square after the celebration, were seen stomping or kicking the rubbish as they walked towards the Masjid Jamek LRT station.

City Hall workers toiled through the wee hours to clean the ground and surrounding areas.

Likewise, their counterparts elsewhere in the country also tackled the mounds of rubbish left behind by revellers.

In GEORGE TOWN, the Penang Municipal Council had an early start to deal with the problem by stationing 20 workers at the main celebration venue at the Esplanade from 9pm on Monday to 2.30am yesterday.

A second batch of 25 council workers went in from 4am to 8am to clear up the litter that was left behind by the revellers.

“We had workers cleaning up the place before, during and after the event to ensure the venue is kept clean all the time,” said the council's urban services department director Mubarak Junus.

He said the workers were wor-king even while the celebration was going on.

Mubarak said the second group cleaned up the mess at Medan Renong and the promenade along Esplanade up to Beach Street.

He added that the council provided two mobile toilets and forty 660-litre bins at the venue.