'Catch and Release' trailer brings instant Mardi Gras bead recycling
February 11, 2012
During last month’s Green Drinks (known as Blue Drinks) the Arc of Greater New Orleans accepted their award for winning the Green the Gras: a Mardi Gras business competition.
Read the article below to learn how you can support this great effort to green-up Mardi Gras! Congratulations Arc of Greater New Orleans!
It's like a Carnival float in reverse. Arc Enterprises' new "Catch and Release" float doesn't throw beads and baubles to parade-goers: The decorated trailer provides a place for revelers to pitch their surplus beads and baubles at the end of the parade.
The Arc trailer, festooned with bull's-eyes and a clown-face target, made its debut Feb. 5 at the tail-end of the Little Rascals parade in Metairie, where revelers pelted it with about 1,000 pounds of throws. That's 1,000 pounds of plastic that won't end up stashed in attics or dumped into the trash, said Margie Perez, Arc Enterprises recycling coordinator.
Instead, the throws end up at the Arc Enterprises headquarters on Labarre Road in Metairie, where they are resold to float riders.
The trailer, which will also follow the Alla and Morpheus parades this year, is one of two new Carnival recycling efforts that Arc Enterprises is participating in this season.
The other is a pilot parade-route recycling project spearheaded by VerdiGras, a nonprofit organization dedicated to, as the name suggests, the greening of Carnival.
This year, VerdiGras and Arc are collaborating to put recycling bins along a six-block stretch of St. Charles Avenue from Amelia to Eighth streets during the Krewe of Pontchartrain parade Sat, Feb. 11. The parade, which rolls at 2 p.m., follows the traditional Uptown route.
Arc's purple and yellow bins, which were donated by the Thomas and Farr Insurance Agency and the New Orleans Hash House Harriers running club, will collect throws, while VerdiGras bins, donated by Phoenix Recycling, will collect paper, plastic and aluminum.
Volunteers will man the bins and sort the beads and other refuse, said Holly Groh, a volunteer with VerdiGras, which hopes the project will also raise awareness.
"Our motto is: It's about the show and not the throw," Groh said. "We don't have to have trash to have a great party."