Crews Melt Gum Off Famous Seattle Wall

The “Gum Wall” landmark in downtown Seattle had accumulated a million discarded pieces of chewing gum over the past 20 years.

Pike Place Market Preservation & Development Authority is going to weigh all the gum before it’s tossed, the Seattle Times says. It is believed that people will be sticking gum on the walls again soon.

The cleaning was announced on The Gum Wall Pike Place Market Facebook page earlier this month.

The whole operation is expected to take three days.

Local artists have been invited to decorate the cleaned-up space on Saturday except for the area of the original brick Gum Wall, which will remain empty in order to welcome more gooey gum.

The famous “gum wall”, said to be made up around one million pieces of chewing gum, is being cleaned up. Steam cleaning was chosen as the method to ensure the historic brick walls will not be damaged from the process.

Another said: “In other heartbreaking news Seattle is power cleaning 20 years worth of gum off the gum wall”.

Rose Gambrel said: “Am I the only one whos super happy theyre removing the Seattle gum wall?”.

“The machine will melt the gum with 280-degree steam; it will fall to the ground, and a two- to three-man crew will collect the gum in five-gallon buckets”.

Officials have said they expect people to begin re-sticking gum on the wall after the clean-up but hope to contain the display after tourists began decorating walls beyond the designated site.

On Tuesday, powerful steam cleaners were melting it all off.

Jessica Wang, left, and Michael Teylan, both of Los Angeles, use a selfie stick at Seattle’s “gum wall” at Pike Place Market, Monday, November 9, 2015.