Mardi Gras means parties and parades along the Alabama Gulf coast. That means it’s also prime time for people who like to catch the colorful beads and doubloons that are thrown from the parade floats. This may sound like all fun and games, but environmentalists say there’s a darker side to this Mardi Gras tradition.
Jason Johnson is the Director of Communications for the city of Mobile. He says Mobile is one of the largest Mardi Gras celebrations in the United States.
“There are months of logistical planning that goes into getting ready for Mardi Gras, and the trash cleanup in particularly is just such a part of the event itself. We like to call it the parade after the parade”
Johnson says that the Mardi Gras parades bring over 200,000 people downtown. The three-week event is full of moon pies and parades put on by local groups known as krewes. He says the bead throws prompted the need for a state-of-the-art cleanup process to Mobile.
“You usually see at any given parade, somewhere around four garbage trucks, two large bucket trucks, several vans. You'll see three to six Street Sweepers and the dump trucks, water trucks, this entire fleet of the people whose job is to clean up the debris from all the pros and everything else that just happened in the parade before.”
Johnson says around 150 public works members clear out the streets after large parades. He says cleanup starts immediately after the parades to safely open the streets back up to traffic and pedestrians.
The amount of waste produced during Mardi Gras causes concern for its environmental impact. The plastic beads thrown during parades can impact soil and the water system. Johnson says Mobile has local schools creating programs to raise funds for education and recycling plastic beads. The city has also taken steps to be more eco-friendly during this time.
“Along all the Mardi Gras routes downtown, we have graded sewer inlets that prevent a lot of debris from getting into the storm water system. We had a partnership with Mobile Bay keeper a few years ago to help install those for the purpose of keeping any kind of trash and debris out of the stormwater system, which keeps it out of the water system.”
Ruth Carmichael is a Senior Marine Scientist at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and Professor at the University of South Alabama. She researched the toxic metals found in Mardi Gras beads.
“If you ever been to a parade and you catch the beads, you look at your hands afterwards, you can actually see the glitter essentially sparkling in your hands, which is the metallic paint coming off the beads.”
Carmichael's study was inspired by her son who questioned the harmful effects of the famous bead throws.
“Green beads had higher levels of chromium and copper on the beads to begin with. And that's also what came off the beads at higher concentrations when they were handled, or when they were mixed up in running water, and then silver beads, in comparison, had higher levels of arsenic.”
Carmichael found that toxic metals like lead, barium, chromium, copper and arsenic can be released from just handling the beads. The colors of the beads can even indicate the different types of metals.
“One of the most sort of concerning findings that we had was that arsenic from green beads and lead from silver beads was released from a single strand of beads.”
The larger environmental impact comes from weathering processes to the beads. This usually happens when beads are thrown near storm drains and rained on. Carmichael says weathering causes toxic metals to be released from the beads even months after the initial throw.
“If you put the beads into 750 mils of water, which is roughly equivalent to putting a strand of beads into a bottle of wine, then you shake it up for about five minutes, you would release those metals at concentrations that were higher than the EPA limits for safe drinking water.”
Carmichael’s findings show beads submerged in water also didn’t pass soil safety standards. The metals released can affect humans, domestic animals and wildlife depending on the weathering process.
Research like Carmichaels has inspired others to make Mardi Gras more eco-friendly. LSU is sponsoring two projects focused on biodegradable beads. The first involves harvesting microscopic algae to use in their beads which can biodegrade in one to two years after Mardi Gras. The second uses 3-D printers to produce the beads with non-toxic materials.
Alexis Strain is a grad student at LSU working on the project. She says they’re using natural materials like corn-based plastic.
“Compared to current Mardi Gras beads that are from petroleum, this is a step in a new direction for Mardi Gras beads. It’s also fun to be able to print them and show people that you can make these beads at home and customize them.”
Strain says they’re improving the biodegradable aspect of the beads with a twist.
“The beads that we've developed are essentially hollow, and inside of the beads, we put seeds from things like sunflowers or azaleas, and types of sweet peas. The benefit is that the seeds inside of the beads, don't get caught, they land in the soil, and they're able to sprout and grow out of the beads and speed up the degradation of the plastic.”
The effort is being led by professor Naohiro Kato. He’s currently working with printing farms to mass produce the new beads. Kato says the biodegradable beads could be thrown at parades possibly in 2026.
Until then, Senior Marine Scientist Ruth Carmichael says to enjoy Mardi Gras responsibly.
“The big thing is really to make sure you're cleaning up. Make sure that you're washing your hands, don't put them in your mouth or put them in a cup as a joke and then drink the water afterwards. We wouldn't recommend any of those things, and don't let children put them in their mouths.”
Carmichael says taking time to recycle and throw away beads on the street can minimize the likelihood of harm to the environment, animals, and humans.
