Dozens of businesses around New Orleans and Jefferson Parish participated in a massive effort spearheaded by the ARC of Greater New Orleans and the Young Leadership Council to collect beads and throws to be repurposed for next years’ parades. To date, the ARC has collected about 62 tons (124,000 pounds) of beads and throws during the two final weeks of Mardi Gras season and their annual bead drive at the Krispy Kreme shop in Metairie. This doesn’t count a school bead drive they are organizing for the first week of April. “This is just over the course of three weeks,” said Stephen Sauer, the ARC’s executive director.
Based on current estimates the organization said that they could potentially double the amount they collect to 124 tons of beads by the end of the year. For the past 30 years, the non-profit organization has provided wage-earning jobs to people with intellectual disabilities, by collecting, sorting and packaging beads and throws for future parade seasons. “I really do believe we have hit a critical mass of people now who are committed to the project of making Mardi Gras greener,” he said.
On average each Mardi Gras season, city clean-up crews collect about 900 tons of garbage that ends up in landfills. This year about 608 tons of trash was collected from the parade routes during Mardi Gras season. Though it may sound like a lot, it’s nearly half of what crews swept up the year before.
In an attempt to address the problem, the Young Leadership Council and the ARC led a massive effort to distribute 130 collection bins at 70 sites around the New Orleans metro area to collect beads and throws that would otherwise have ended up in the sewers or landfills.
During the last two weeks of Mardi Gras season they had 4,300 volunteers, up from 3,000 the year before, helping them sort, clean and repackage beads and throws. “I think those catch bin stories caught peoples’ eyes and there is now a commitment to this project that is manifesting itself,” Sauer said.
This was the first year that The Charles House, a condominium building on St. Charles Avenue participated in the recycling effort. After the first weekend the two smaller 45-gallon bins they had set out were full, according to Mary Lynn Hyde, a condo unit owner in the building. Two additional 96-gallon bins had to be brought in. They were full in a matter of days and they had overflow, Hyde said.