The floats have passed through, the barricades have been taken down and the king cake has been eaten. While we recover from the exhaustion of Mardi Gras, most of us aren’t thinking about the environmental effects of this Louisiana tradition, but we should be.
Mardi Gras necklaces have been thrown at parades since 1871, originally made of glass beads and tossed with doubloons and other knickknacks. The glass has now been replaced with plastic, and the necklaces are thrown alongside stuffed animals, cups, hats, candy and more. The tradition of Mardi Gras beads is well known throughout the country, but what is less known is what happens to those beads after the parades are over.
In New Orleans, parades follow routes all through the city, and the loaded storm drains are evidence of the effects these seemingly harmless beads have on the environment. In 2018, New Orleans city workers collected 93,000 pounds of Mardi Gras beads from the drainage system. That’s almost 47 tons.
Not only do the beads block flood waters from flowing through the drains, but they also release small amounts of lead into soil and water. Children take home these colorful necklaces of toxic metal and flame retardants, which have been linked to birth defects, asthma, reproductive issues, liver toxicity, learning disabilities and cancer.
While it is important to keep up Mardi Gras traditions, it is far more important to protect parade goers, bead collectors and the environment. Drainage systems are in place as protection from flooding and pollution, the functionality of which New Orleans desperately needs.
To fight back against Mardi Gras waste, the Young Leadership Council of New Orleans launched the Mardi Gras Recycling Initiative. This initiative encourages people to reuse their beads, invest in sustainable beads and volunteer to clean up after the Mardi Gras festivities. The city also offers recycling along parade routes and donation sites though The Arc of Greater New Orleans.
More recently, there has been a push for the use of sustainable beads. As a response, Noble Plastics—a company based in St. Landry parish—has assisted LSU professor Naohiro Kato in the creation of a biodegradable bead. The beads themselves are made of microalgae grown in tanks on campus, which is then processed and dried in Kato’s lab. The microalgae are paired with compostable plastic, molded and strung on hemp string. While untreated plastic beads take many years to decompose, Kato’s beads will degrade in less than two years.
As of now, a single sustainable necklace costs a whopping $5, but this didn’t stop the Krewe of Tucks and Krewe of Freret from stocking up this past Mardi Gras season. 500 strands of Kato’s beads were thrown in New Orleans this year. If the popularity of these microalgae beads grow, Kato hopes he can mass produce them and reduce prices to between 20 and 50 cents per necklace.
Kato’s new biodegradable bead provides a way to protect Mardi Gras traditions while also protecting our state’s environment and residents. Sustainable parade practices help us highlight the green in the Mardi Gras colors we cherish so dearly in Louisiana.
Mia Coco is a 19-year-old political communications student from Alexandria.