During the peak weeks of Mardi Gras, thousands of revelers line the St. Charles parade route in New Orleans. Spectators in flamboyant costumes wriggle their hips, raise their go cups and stretch out their hands to receive a rainfall of plastic beads as float after float rumbles by. Before the crowds depart, they litter the ground with red Solo cups and cheap necklaces, water bottles and beer cans — the trashed tableau of le bon temps.
Mardi Gras is one of the largest free, unsponsored festivals in the world. It is also one of the most wasteful. During the next 11 days, more than two dozen parades will stampede through the city, with a trail of trash following in their wake. Last year, New Orleans dumped 1,150 tons of refuse.
“You’re expected to just drop everything in place, and then bulldozers come and put it in a pile and take it to the landfill,” said Brett Davis, founder of Grounds Krewe, which has led small-scale recycling programs at Mardi Gras since 2018. “It can be as much as ankle deep when you’re walking around after the parades.”
This year, a pilot program called Recycle Dat will attempt to rescue materials from the heap. The initiative brings together the city of New Orleans; New Orleans and Company, its tourism office; and several nonprofits such as Grounds Krewe and the Arc of Greater New Orleans. Because of their efforts, parade-goers will notice a new attraction along the parade route: recycling receptacles.
“We’re well-known for our excess during Mardi Gras,” said Greg Nichols, deputy chief resilience officer for the city’s Office of Resilience and Sustainability. “There have been some community groups on the ground on a small scale. This initiative is really focused on building on those community partners and the work they’ve done.”
Confronting ‘a river of plastic waste’
During Mardi Gras, New Orleans tackles its trash with the blind fury of a demolition site cleanup. After the last parade of each evening, trucks will sweep the strewn trash into tidy mounds they will transport to the landfill. Everything gets tossed, including common recyclable items.
“New Orleans is unfortunately a little behind the curve in terms of sustainable practices and behaviors,” Davis said. “There’s literally a river of plastic waste, and a lot of it is glowing and lighting up. It’s sort of surreal to see.”
In previous years, parade-goers had few waste-disposal and recycling options. They could carry their trash home or back to their hotel or toss it on the ground, which is perfectly acceptable conduct during Mardi Gras.
Recycle Dat primarily focuses on aluminum cans, glass bottles and the plastic bead necklaces that krewes fling at parade spectators. For the second weekend in a row, the organizers have erected four hubs along the some three-mile St. Charles parade route that accept the holy trinity of recyclable goods. A few recycling sites also take toys, trinkets, plush animals and other ephemera, as long as the items are clean and intact.
The four main locations are Sacred Heart Academy, New Orleans and Company, the Greater New Orleans Foundation and Gallier Hall. There will also be 10 aluminum “can stations.”
“We will put the bins at every block for 10 blocks in the highly concentrated areas of fraternities and sororities,” Davis said, alluding to some of the worst offenders.
Before the first morning parade, volunteers circulate through the crowd and hand out mesh crawfish bags that can be used to collect unwanted beads. After the last parade, they gather the full sacks, or participants can drop them off at the hubs or other sites — community centers, fire stations, Uptown Whole Foods — that accept the beads on a regular basis. The volunteers also take empty cans off people’s hands.
“They will have backpacks designed to be receptacles for cans and big green grocery carts on bike tires that they will push on the far side of parade route and engage people to put cans in them,” Davis said.
The recycling hub and can stations have limited hours: Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The volunteers will work the same hours. For safety reasons, they must be off the streets before the night parades mobilize.
“It is not going to be more than a drop in the bucket,” Davis cautioned, but “it is something.”
Replacing beads with jambalaya mix
Bead tosses are more than a Mardi Gras tradition; they are a financial necessity. New Orleans law bans sponsorships, so krewes must cover parade expenses themselves. To raise funds, they charge membership dues, organize balls and sell throw packages to float riders.
“All that stuff littered on the street is the dollars and cents that paid for that parade that you went to for free,” Davis said.
A growing number of krewes are ditching the cheap plastic beads imported from China for sustainable or recycled goods. Rex, the city’s longest-running krewe that still parades (since 1872), purchases reused beads processed and packaged by ArcGNO, the nonprofit that provides multiple services and employment opportunities to adults with intellectual disabilities. The krewe, which will roll out more than two dozen floats on Fat Tuesday, has also hurled stainless-steel cups with the Rex logo and the krewe’s colors (this year’s shade will be green), glass beads and bracelets.
“We want to throw items that people will want to keep and bring home and not toss into the gutter,” said Steven Ellis, quartermaster for Rex.
The krewe has also eliminated single-use plastic in its packaging. For the second year, it will bundle its trinkets in cotton drawstring bags. Grounds Krewe also uses natural materials, such as handwoven jute bags from India, for its sustainable throws, which it started selling in January 2020. The organization’s eco-friendly alternatives honor New Orleans culture and traditions: red beans, jambalaya mix, coffee, handmade Mardi Gras-colored soap and native flower starter kits.
“You can’t catch enough red beans or jambalaya mix or coffee,” Davis said, “but you can catch enough beads.”
Last year, Iris became the first krewe to debut branded throws from Grounds Krewe, and they chuck a lot: The oldest all-female Mardi Gras organization is also the largest, with more than 3,600 members. The group has also lobbed kid-size tutus and capes, pickleball sets, fanny packs, head bands and hand-decorated sunglasses, a coveted accessory.
This year, five krewes, including Iris, ordered Grounds Krewe’s sustainable throw packages. The new quartet includes Alla, Themis, Excalibur and Pygmalion, which paraded last weekend, and Iris, which will hit the streets on Saturday.
Individuals can also order the products from Grounds Krewe’s online catalogue, which features a more sustainable string of beads made of palm tree or acai seeds.
Volunteers get drink tickets, biodegradable glitter
Recycling requires many hands, and Recycle Dat and its partners rely heavily on volunteers. For two weekends, Davis said about 200 volunteers signed up to work three-hour shifts per day.
For their time and assistance, volunteers receive lots of swag: a Recycle Dat T-shirt, a “Recycle Something, Mister” or “Recycle Something, Sister” fanny pack, biodegradable glitter and a drink voucher for one of eight local breweries.
Though Carnival only covers several weeks in the winter, the prep work is year-round. Grounds Krewe always needs volunteers to assemble its packages. ArcGNO, which processed 120 tons of throws last year, invites the public to help out in its Mardi Gras Recycle Center.
Tasks include sorting the donations by category (beads, stuffed animals, toys and trinkets) and packaging the items for sale. Sherrana McGee-Stemley, the director of the bead recycling center, said volunteer slots become available starting in late March.
During the next several days of festivities, visitors can also pitch in by reducing their own reliance on plastic. New Orleans has very liberal public-drinking laws, so before leaving the house for the day, fill a thermos or camping pitcher with cocktails. Make sure to bring enough non-disposable cups so you can share with your parade mates.
clarification
A previous version of this article called Rex the city's oldest krewe. It is the longest-running krewe that still parades. This version has been updated.
