In New Orleans, some Mardi Gras groups swap plastic beads for glass for parade throws : NPR

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

It’s Mardi Gras season in New Orleans, when parade-goers are eager to grab items like beads. However, these beads are often made of plastic. But plastic beads can be toxic and harmful to the environment, which is why some Mardi Gras organizers are turning to locally recycled glass. Drew Hawkins with Gulf States Newsroom reporting.

CHRIS POMFRET: Just try to be courteous and respectful.

(SOUNDBITE OF GLASS CLINKING)

DREW HAWKINS, BYLINE: It’s Saturday morning in Algiers Point in New Orleans. And for this neighborhood, that means it’s Glass Recycling Day. Chris Pomfret lives here and started collecting glass in 2019.

POMFRET: It’s like a farmer with his herd of cows: you have to milk them every day. This has to happen every week, no matter what, because the audience expects it.

HAWKINS: New Orleans hasn’t had a glass recycling program since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, so people in this neighborhood take their glass – lots of wine, beer and liquor bottles – to one of the local churches. Pomfret says they collect about 1,000 books every week.

POMFRET: It brings the community together. We meet and talk to a lot of people here, which is nice. He serves the community. It serves an environmental purpose and we have people who are happy to do it.

HAWKINS: The glass is transported to Glass Half Full. The company turns the bottles into sand that is used to help rebuild Louisiana’s disappearing coastline. This year they are also turning some of these bottles into beads.

(SOUNDBITE OF GLASS JINGLING)

HAWKINS: That’s because the company’s co-founder and CEO, Franziska Trautmann, is also a Mardi Gras queen. She was chosen to be the queen of the Krewe du Vieux. The Mardi Gras walking parade is known for its raunchy costumes and satirical themes.

FRANZISKA TRAUTMANN: And I freaked out because Krewe du Vieux is really one of my favorite parades, not only because it’s fun and artistic, but it always has a message.

HAWKINS: The Krewe’s theme this year is Save Our Wet Alands, a signature play on words on Louisiana’s coastal crisis, where the equivalent of a football field is lost every 100 minutes to erosion and sea level rise.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

HAWKINS: Trautmann used the recycled glass beads to make necklaces, bracelets and key chains that they tossed to the crowd at their fashion show last weekend.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

HAWKINS: Her message as queen is simple. Mardi Gras can still be fun without plastic beads.

TRAUTMANN: That’s not the basis of Mardi Gras – it’s not throwing away all that plastic (laughter). Foundation is the community coming together and experiencing joy despite everything going on in the world.

HAWKINS: Residents like Chris Pomfret in Algiers Point agree. And he loves the idea that the glass they recycle could end up as beads in a fashion show.

POMFRET: There is nothing more essential than that for New Orleans.

HAWKINS: The idea of ​​a more environmentally friendly Mardi Gras is gaining momentum, with more communities abandoning plastic beads in favor of glass ones. It is also, in a way, a return to tradition. In the 1950s, all Mardi Gras beads were made of glass.

For NPR News, I’m Drew Hawkins in New Orleans.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

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