Mardi Gras in New Orleans is often recognized as the “greatest free show on Earth,” each year drawing out millions of residents and visitors to the city to contribute almost one billion dollars to the local economy. It showcases our city’s incredibly unique culture & beauty through various forms of craft, tradition, spectacle, and performance. Yet, over the last half century it has evolved into a mammoth generator of unwanted, toxic, disposable, plastic “throw” waste imported from factories overseas.
Cheap beads and trinkets, often branded with Krewe names, are highly marked up and sold from Krewe leadership to float riders to help pay for the costs associated with the world’s largest free and unsponsored event. The competitive nature of parading organizations, always vying to be bigger, better and more grandiose, has resulted in a deluge of throws being sold and tossed during Carnival which has caused plummeting demand and a growing waste crisis.
The waste threatens the health of our children and our environment and puts a strain on our fragile city infrastructure, taxpayer funds and city image — with little to no accountability for who owns it, why it’s really there and how to fix a system that relies on it as a byproduct of parade operating costs.
Raising public awareness, enacting sensible measures through city and Krewe leadership and promoting a quality over quanitity, local, sustainable throw economy that invests millions of dollars in our community annually are all critical to reducing the waste. It’s time for our city to protect itself, lead by example and remind everyone that “it’s the show, not the throw” that makes Mardi Gras so special.
