how long did it take to clean up 911

The cleanup of the 9/11 World Trade Center site, known as Ground Zero, took approximately eight to ten months to complete initially. Work was ongoing 24 hours a day, involving tens of thousands of responders, workers, and volunteers. By around May 2002, the last significant debris, including steel pieces, was removed from the site. However, remnants of debris and hazardous materials continued to be found and dealt with in the years following. The removed debris, about 1.8 million tons, was sent mainly to the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island for further sorting. The cleanup was a massive operation involving careful sorting for human remains and hazardous materials, and it took considerable time due to the scale and danger of the task.