Recycle Dat, the recycling program run by Grounds Krewe, Glass Half Full, Osprey Initative and New Orleans & Company, announced they diverted over 60,000 pounds of recyclable material from landfills this Mardi Gras, according to a video posted Franziska Trautmann. Trautmann is a Tulane University alum and one of the founders of Glass Half Full, a New Orleans-based grassroots recycling program.
The recycled material from Carnival this year includes an estimated 197,000 aluminium cans, 76,000 plastic bottles and 46,000 glass bottles. The initiative also saved 18,000 pounds of beads and throws from being trashed, which Recycle Dat will send to The Arc of Greater New Orleans and St. Michael’s Special School to be recycled and reused.
Mardi Gras typically produces over 2.5 million pounds of street waste over 11 days of Carnival, which can clog storm drains and leak chemicals and microplastics into the soil and waterways.
The Recycle Dat initiative set up eight recycling stations along the Uptown route where parade-goers could drop off beads, bottles, cans and unwanted throws. With each recycling drop off, donors were entered into a sweepstakes to win prizes including gift cards, passes to local museums and tickets to see The Lumineers at the Smoothie King Center.
“Recycle Dat is proof that with something that is engaging, transparent, visible and exciting, people actually want to participate in recycling programs,” Trautmann said in the video. “People don’t want to see our streets littered and trashed after Mardi Gras.”
This is the fourth year Recycle Dat has run, collecting more than double the recyclable material from last year.
Tulane University students are culpable for some of the trash left on the parade route, as well as the piles of cans, bottles and whippets left on Broadway Street after the festivities.
“It’s important for Tulane students to take time to recycle during Mardi Gras because we already have the reputation of having a negative impact on New Orleans, and by contributing to the waste problem, we are proving locals right,” senior Sydney Gusick said. “It’s up to Tulane students to clean up after ourselves and be mindful of the mess we make on the parade route.”