I wonder what they do with them?

[Alpo]

I'm watching this TV show. Jean-Claude Van Damme is making a movie, and in the process of making the movie he gets killed.

 

So they've got this big picture of him in the lobby, and people come up and they're putting down flowers and lighting candles and leaving teddy bears.

 

And at the end of the show maintenance comes by and picks up all that stuff.

 

And then tomorrow the bereaved public will come by and put down more flowers and teddy bears and whatever.

 

And I just casually wondered what maintenance does with all that stuff?

 

Pictures, I'm sure they toss. Flowers -well they're already a day old so they probably throw them away. But teddy bears and other childish? things that people leave? Donate them to the children's wing of the hospital?

 

Or just throw it all away. It'd be much simpler to just throw it all away, that's for sure.

[Crooked River Pete, SASS 43485]

Tusco used to have, maybe still do, a shoot once a year where they used teddy bears for shotgun targets. I always wondered where they got them from... hmmm

[watab kid]

just throw them away i think , 

[Ozark Huckleberry]

For memorial items left at the site of a private citizen's tragedy, I'd suppose they would be disposed of as the property owner deems fit, unless the deceased's family makes specific requests or acts to recover them on their own. Maybe if it was someone noteworthy, some of the items might wind up in a display in the lobby. By law, I think memorial items are considered voluntarily abandoned.

 

One exception to the 'discarded' bit that I know of is the Vietnam Memorial. Items left there become the property of the National Park Service, and are either disposed of, or if the tribute merits special attention it is preserved for the museum.

Edited August 29 by Ozark Huckleberry

[Pat Riot]

Working in rail transit we got a lot of “memorials” on railroad property due to Darwinism - people dying due to being what they are…or were.

Each agency I worked at handled them a bit differently. 
1. Remove them as soon as they appeared.

2. Move them off the Right of Way unless it impedes road or sidewalk traffic then they were left on the edge of the right of way for 7 days.

3. Removal if on the Right of Way. No consideration if they were not.

4. Back to the first agency I started at.

They go out of their way to allow it and encourage employees to go pay their respects. 

[Sixgun Seamus]

When I was in high school, I worked at a cemetary where my great uncle was the sexton. When we buried people there were usually quite a few flowers and/or arrangements on the grave. After a week, all items were ingloriously loaded into his '53 GMC pickup and hauled to the Township dump. 

[Rye Miles #13621]

3 hours ago, Sixgun Seamus said:

When I was in high school, I worked at a cemetary where my great uncle was the sexton. When we buried people there were usually quite a few flowers and/or arrangements on the grave. After a week, all items were ingloriously loaded into his '53 GMC pickup and hauled to the Township dump. 

I worked one summer at a cemetery also. That’s exactly what we did. Everything went to the dump!

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

In ‘93 the Vietnam Memorial (the Wall) was dedicated. Immediately it began to collect items. Items were documented, photographed. I don’t know about perishable items. The most common items were medals and ribbon racks.  In ‘96 there was an exhibit on the war at the Smithsonian and in a gallery nearby was a exhibit of items left at the wall.