On Wednesday afternoon, Mayor Adams held a rare official event outside the five boroughs, visiting a Long Island incinerator where he was flanked by tables stacked high with seized cannabis products.

“We’re going to destroy illegal cannabis in this city,” the Mayor told reporters.

On this day, he meant it literally.

After a media briefing outside, the mayor was led inside the facility to a small crane operators' cabin. There, he took a spin at the controls, operating a claw that scooped up bags full of illegal cannabis products — mixed with other garbage — and dropped it into a hopper on its way to being incinerated.

It’s all part of city’s Operation Padlock to Protect, which has now resulted in the inspection of every suspected illicit smoke shop in the city — more than 4,000 altogether, according to the city.

Of those, 1,000 have been shut down, officials said. The seized product, which has been collecting in NYPD evidence warehouses, is all eventually destroyed.

“We don’t want it recycled back in the communities,” Adams said. “You place it in a landfill, you just really open the door to people going to the landfills and trying to salvage whatever they can. The goal is the destruction of the product and not just to dump it somewhere.”

Officials at the Westbury facility say an advanced filtration system prevents toxic fumes or odors from being released into the surrounding community.

Beyond Wednesday’s photo op, the city says its task force, led by city Sheriff Anthony Miranda, will continue its crackdown, and that smoke shops still operating aren’t off the hook.

“Some of them receive cease-and-desist orders, which require a second visit,” Miranda said. “So there are ongoing investigations, and we will be visiting some of them a couple of times.”

At least one shuttered shop has successfully sued the city, arguing it was denied due process.

The mayor didn’t weigh in on legal matters. “The law department will have to answer that,” he said. “All I do is burn.”

Altogether, the city says it has seized $63 million worth of illicit cannabis products during the four-month crackdown, four tons of which were incinerated on Wednesday.