New krewe aims to make Mardi Gras cleaner

While Mardi Gras is one of South Louisiana’s signature celebrations, it’s not typically known for being clean.

The news that the New Orleans cleaned 93,000 pounds of beads out of storm drain catch basins along a five-block route has been widely circulated this month. It’s brought about a renewed effort to do something to help curb the waste. The Young Leadership Council and Arc of Greater New Orleans are teaming up to distribute recycling bags along the parade route in New Orleans to help divert recyclables from going to the landfill.

Closer to home in Acadiana, there are great initiatives happening to avoid some of the parade waste. Project Front Yard has teamed up with the Krewe of Rio this year to assist with collecting recyclable waste on the floats. As krewe members stocked floats at their loading dock, Project Front Yard was there to collect cardboard boxes for recycling and plastic bags for their Plastic Bag Roundup project.

More:Lafayette Mardi Gras 2018: We've got ALL the photos!

Project Front Yard volunteers also participated in the Krewe of Rio parade this past weekend, walking after the final float and collecting recyclables along the route.

This is the second time Project Front Yard has participated in the Krewe of Rio parade — volunteers first walked in the 2015 parade, collecting a flatbed trailer full of trash and Mardi Gras beads.

New this year is the Krewe de Canailles walking parade. In addition to the effort of bringing a parade back to the people and bypassing the barricades, Krewe de Canaille aims to be a more sustainable parade. There are no engine-powered floats and no Mardi Gras beads to be thrown.

“We stand against cavalierly discarding plastic bags that ultimately end up in our trees, gutters and waterways. Each sub-krewe will have our signature wooden doubloons to hand out, along with their own unique crowns they’ve created. Sub-krewes can also create their own signature throws, as long as they are as environmentally friendly,” krewe organizers explain.

The Krewe de Canaille parade rolls — well, walks — through downtown at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 9.

If you’re attending any parades, you can help in these efforts to make Mardi Gras just a little more sustainable.

• Ride your bike or walk to your favorite spot on the parade route. You'll save gas, save money, save time, and possibly save yourself a towing fee or parking ticket.
• Leave the glass bottles at home. If your glass becomes litter, it can be dangerous to car, bike or stroller tires, and someone’s feet
• Bring cloth bags, plastic bins or baskets to hold all of your catches.
• Skip the Styrofoam or other single-use drink cups. Pour your beer/homemade cocktail into a reusable travel mug before you depart, or ask the bar if they can pour your drink into your reusable container instead of a single-use cup.
• Don't forget reusable bottles filled with water.
• Pack snacks in lightweight reusable containers that can be put back in your vehicle or bag.
• Be responsible for what you haul to the parade. Bring an extra bag to keep your trash and/or recyclables in, or use your ice chest to hold your trash. If you bring it, you make sure it leaves, whether you throw it away or take it home to recycle. Don’t leave anything behind.
•  If you don’t want to bring a reusable cup, bring drinks in aluminum cans. But don't leave them on the street or toss them in somebody's front yard. Save and recycle those cans.
• Pick up extra beads around you and put them in your bag. All beads can be donated and recycled for cleaning and repair and resale in future years.

LARC and Arc of Acadiana are also helping to combat Mardi Gras waste. Each year, the organizations collect Mardi Gras bead donations, and they repackage and resell the beads to anyone needing throws. Bead recycling and resale helps to fund the organizations all year long.

We might as well reuse Mardi Gras beads year after year, instead of sending them to the landfill or leaving them to become litter.

More:Just how much do Mardi Gras beads and throws cost?

In Lafayette, you can donate any of your beads to LARC by depositing them in the bed of a marked truck located at Le Festival De Mardi Gras a Lafayette. Many of the smaller community parades will have a trailer following the final float, collecting beads to be donated.

Let’s see how green we can make 2018 Mardi Gras!

Lafayette native Caitlin Russo is the bike-riding, compulsive litter-collecting, yoga-obsessed green blogger behind EcoCajun.com.