A street sweeper or street cleaner may refer to a person's occupation or to a machine that cleans streets. Street sweepers have been employed in cities as "sanitation workers" since sanitation and waste removal became a priority. A street-sweeping person would use a broom and shovel to clean off litter, animal waste and filth that accumulated on streets. Later, water hoses were used to wash the streets. Machines were created in the 19th century to do the job more efficiently. Today, modern street sweepers are mounted on truck bodies and can vacuum debris that accumulates in streets. Modern sweepers Street sweepers are capable of collecting small particles of debris. Many street sweepers produced today are PM10 and PM2.5 certified, meaning that they are capable of collecting and holding particulate matter sized less than 10μm and even down to 2.5μm. Despite advancements in street sweeping technology, the mechanical broom type street sweeper accounts for approximately 90 percent of all street sweepers used in the United States today. In 2018, Boschung, a Swiss street sweeper manufacturer, launched the Urban-Sweeper S2.0, the first fully electric street sweeper releasing 0 (zero) emissions. History Manual sweeping The need for rubbish to be removed from roads in built-up areas has existed for centuries. Sometimes a local law in a town or city ordered the owner or occupier of each address to clean the length of that road that passed his address. Sometimes when much traffic was horse-drawn vehicles or ridden horses, there were street cleaners who selectively removed horse droppings because of their value as fertilizer on nearby rural areas. Mechanical sweepers in the United Kingdom By the 1840s, Manchester, England, had become known as the first industrial city. Manchester had one of the largest textile industries of that time. As a result, the robust metropolis was said to be England's unhealthiest place to live. In response to this unsanitary environment, Joseph Whitworth invented the mechanical street sweeper. The street sweeper was designed with the primary objective to remove rubbish from streets in order to maintain aesthetic goals and safety. Mechanical sweepers in the United States The very first street sweeping machine was patented in 1849 by its inventor, C.S. Bishop. For a long time, street sweepers were just rotating disks covered with wire bristles. These rotating disks served as mechanical brooms that swept the dirt on the streets. The first self-propelled sweeper vehicle patented in