Aesthetics is not the only reason why we should sweep our streets.

Street sweeping provides a major public health benefit by reducing the amount of hazardous materials in our air. In addition to large debris and dirt, our streets are coated with a significant amount of small debris (~10 microns) that is hazardous and not visible to the human eye. The clouds of dust that are formed by speeding vehicles have a significantly high volume of heavy metals, especially Fe (iron), Zn (zinc), Pb (lead) and Cu (copper). Long-term exposure to these metals can lead to gradually progressing diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, muscular dystrophy, cancer of lungs, liver, bladder and skin.

The economic benefit of sweeping is through preventative maintenance of our roads. Regular cleaning of roads prevents the debris from entering into the storm lines. Plugged storm lines are costly to unclog and result in flooding during the rainy season, creating a huge cost to the economy. Also, these heavy metals in debris enter into river through storm line which afterward hampers marine life.