New Orleans Mardi Gras has become an opportunity to promote sustainability thanks to the Recycle Dat! recycling program. Through this initiative, parade-goers can contribute to the city in an eco-friendly way without straying too far from Bourbon Street.
Each year, Recycle Dat! organizes volunteers, both local and visiting, during the two weekends leading up to Shrove Tuesday to collect the thousands of aluminum cans that are discarded along the parade routes. This year more than 4,500 kg of cans were collected, which are then recycled locally. The recycled aluminum is sold at market price, and the proceeds, matched by Every Can Counts, go to local charities. This year, the beneficiaries will be Grow Dat Youth Farm, S.O.U.L. and T.R.E.E. Nola.
The program is a collaboration of three organizations – Grounds Krewe, Every Can Counts and the New Orleans Office of Resilience and Sustainability– but it also has a personal motivation. According to Brett Davis, director of Grounds Krewe, the initiative was born to address the environmental problem that has grown rapidly in the city, as the 12 days of Carnival generate an enormous amount of waste, much of it cans and objects thrown by the crowds. He commented in an interview with Travel + Leisure.
The goal of Recycle Dat! is to provide an easy and efficient way to recycle. Since its inception three years ago, the program has successfully collected and recycled more than 300,000 cans that would otherwise have ended up in landfills. Aluminum recycling has a significant impact, as 97% of the cans recycled in the United States are reused to create new cans in a process that takes less than 60 days.
Volunteers who join this cause not only contribute to the environment, but also have the opportunity to win prizes, such as stays at The Chloe or tickets to the city’s famous Jazz Fest.
