Mardi faux pas

By ​Ruby Liles

I spent this past weekend in the Big Easy with my family, and though my time in New Orleans was overall amazing, thinking about the environmental aftermath of one of the country’s biggest parties makes me sick to my stomach.

950 tons and counting. The thousands of brightly colored beads, buttons, stuffed animals, cups and everything in between I spent my weekend pleading masked float-riders to throw me are adding up this Fat Tuesday.

I spent this past weekend in the Big Easy with my family, and though my time in New Orleans was overall amazing, thinking about the environmental aftermath of one of the country’s biggest parties makes me sick to my stomach.

As droves of Mardi Partiers, high on life and probably other mind-altering substances, thronged farther and farther from St. Charles Avenue with the conclusion of that day’s parades, what was left behind evidently sparked little to no concern from those who now sought their next venue, especially NOLA natives for whom the sights and sounds of Mardi Gras are hardly out of the ordinary. But as I, a born and raised Memphian and first time Mardi Gras attendee, walked with them, I couldn’t bring myself to shift my gaze from the overflowing piles of trash that now lined the street, the rows of garbage trucks that now filled dumpsters as if they were shoeboxes, the beads and toys - once battled for, now spurned — which lay dirty and face down in the Louisiana mud.

Gluttony, Greed, Lust — the two-week celebration is no stranger to the seven deadly sins. Fitting, as those who celebrate it seek to sneak in their last transgressions before Lent, the Christian season of penitential preparation, commences. But I wonder if we have to wait for Lent to give up trashing the one earth we’ve got with no other justification than “It’s Mardi Gras!”

Mardi Gras is the season of excess — this I fully understand and am in no way trying to belittle. I, of course, chose to go to Mardi Gras this year and am planning to go again. But if we’re going to spend two weeks every year throwing around all things ‘Made in China,’ we better prepare to instill some accountability.

The city of New Orleans has made a concerted effort towards making their #1 tourist event a bit more eco-friendly. However, I only saw the green recycling bags in which parade-goers are instructed to place their plastic bottles and paper used as regular trash bags, makeshift coolers, or simply strewn on the ground to be ultimately picked up and put in a dumpster themselves.

For fear of sounding too much like a Debbie Downer, I digress. Know that I’m not so radical as to propose the forbiddance as such iconic and rich-in-culture celebrations as Mardi Gras. I guess I just wish we were all as enthused about environmental sustainability as we are about our favorite Krewe. Idealistic as it may be, I dream of a world in which Jill Stein can comfortably turn up at Mardi Gras, sooner rather than later. If just doing my part to pick up after myself is what it will take to get us there, I’m more than willing.