SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Mardi Gras parades have a reputation for making a lot of trash. But some organizers are trying to change that by banning one of the most colorful Mardi Gras traditions, the tossing of plastic beads into the crowd. Matt Bloom with Member station WWNO takes us on a recent parade on the streets of New Orleans where plastic beads were notably absent.
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BONNIE HILL: Hey, hey, hey.
MATT BLOOM, BYLINE: Parade-goer Bonnie Hill waves her hands as a float shaped like a medieval castle passes by. Riders toss dozens of throws, as they're called, in the air. There's frisbees, a toy sword, stuffed animals and more.
Oh, my gosh. Wait. What did you get there?
HILL: Glass beads.
BLOOM: Notably, much smaller than the usual plastic beads - the group putting this parade on, called the Krewe of Freret, used 250,000 strands of plastic beads last year. But this year, they're not using any.
HILL: I love that so many of the krewes are doing that. It's so important, and they're throwing less.
BLOOM: At least two major parades have stopped using plastic beads altogether. That's because many end up in landfills or clog the city's drainage system.
BOBBY HJORTSBERG: Honestly, it was a very easy decision.
BLOOM: Bobby Hjortsberg is captain of the Krewe of Freret. He says he came to the realization on Mardi Gras Day last year.
HJORTSBERG: My 1-year-old daughter was wearing a strand of beads, and I saw him start to, like, bleed onto her neck.
BLOOM: Meaning the paint color from the beads was staining her skin and clothes.
HJORTSBERG: And I just, like, remember thinking to myself, like, what are we doing?
BLOOM: Now they're replacing beads with more useful throws, like packs of jambalaya ingredients.
CIVIA HEBERT: I've cooked the jambalaya that I've caught in the parades, and it's delicious.
BLOOM: Civia Hebert is on the sidewalk with her husband, Tommy, and daughter, Lucy. The family is keeping an eye on the floats for a chocolate-covered moon pie.
LUCY: And I got a cookie.
BLOOM: What kind?
LUCY: Like, a marshmallow cookie.
TOMMY: There's only one kind. Moon Pie.
HEBERT: Moon Pie.
BLOOM: They also caught a bag of red beans and sugar cubes throughout the night, which they say they definitely won't put to waste. For NPR News, I'm Matt Bloom in New Orleans.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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