Gerald Herbert/AP
NEW ORLEANS — It's a beloved 100-year-old Carnival season tradition in New Orleans. Masked riders on extravagant floats toss colorful beads and other trinkets as parade spectators cheer with outstretched arms.
While it's all fun, it's a bit of a “plastics disaster,” says Judith Enck, a former Environmental Protection Agency regional administrator and president of the advocacy group Beyond Plastics.
Carnival season reaches its peak this weekend. The city's annual parade begins a week ago and concludes on Tuesday (Mardi Gras), the last day of pre-Lent feasting. Thousands attend the parade and they leave a mess of trash behind.
Despite extensive daily clean-up operations that left the scenery noticeably clean after the parade, the uncaught beads hung from tree branches like Spanish moss and settled in the mud at the feet of passers-by. They also only complicate efforts to keep storm-ravaged and flood-prone city streets dry. In recent years, huge amounts of water have been drained from aging drainage systems.
Drainage that is not removed from storm drains eventually gets washed through the system into Lake Pontchartrain, an inlet to the Gulf of Mexico north of the city. Non-biodegradable plastic poses a threat to fish and wildlife, Enck said.
“Trash is becoming a feature of the event,” said Brett Davis, a New Orleans native who grew up catching beads in Mardi Gras parades. He currently leads a non-profit organization working to reduce waste.
One way to reduce the demand for new plastic beads is to reuse old plastic beads. Those who attend the parade with home shopping bags filled with freshly caught marbles, foam footballs, rubber balls and other freshly thrown goodies can donate the items to the Arc of New Orleans. The organization repackages and resells its products to raise funds for the services it provides to adults and children with disabilities.
The city of New Orleans and tourism promotion agency New Orleans & Co. also operate can, glass and bead collection points along the parade route.
Besides recycling, there is a small but growing movement to find other things for parade riders to lob.
Davis' nonprofit, the Grounds Krewe, is currently marketing more than 20 non-plastic, sustainable items for parade riders to showcase. Among them: headbands made from recycled T-shirts; Beads made from paper, acai seeds, or recycled glass; wooden yoyo; And locally made coffee, jambalaya mix, or other food items — useful, consumable items that won't take up someone's attic space or, worse, end up in the lake.
“I just caught 15 foam footballs in a parade,” Davis joked. “What about the other one?”
Plastic imports remain widespread, but efforts to mitigate the damage are gaining popularity.
“This effort will benefit a green Mardi Gras,” Christy Leavitt of Oceana Group said in an email.
Enck, who visited New Orleans last year and attended the Mardi Gras celebration, hopes parade organizers will adopt biodegradable alternatives.
“There are great ways to have fun and enjoy this wonderful festival,” she said. “But you can have fun without damaging the environment.”