speaking out
Making Carnival Environmentally Friendly (See cover story pg. 42. for related article.) To judge a parading krewe by
the quantity of its throws is, to us, like judging the quality of a wine by the size of its bottle. The true quality is in the creation not in the numbers. Environmental friendliness should also be an issue. There was a time when if a person came home from a parade having snagged a couple of pairs of beads and a trinket or two that was considered a successful experience. But with the advent of the super krewes, beginning with Bacchus in 1968, the emphasis, in an effort to make more of an attraction of Carnival, shifted to “bigger” not only in the size of floats, or the number of riders, but also on the throws. More was better, and also size, including lethal sized beads. Other krewes that might have
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otherwise staged visually nice parades began to realize that they were increasingly being judged by the tonnage of their beads more than the artistry of their events. With the burgeoning of an escalating Asian manufacturing industry, throws could be made plentiful by the millions. In recent years, however, there has been an increased emphasis on throws that are environmentally friendly, or at least not environmentally harmful. Good work is being done in various ways including recycling, making throws from old paper products and even using some chemicals that are environmentally safe. Some small local businesses are trying to develop throws that are artistic and compatible to nature.
We know that there will be labor What if all krewes would agree and cost efficiency issues. Cottage to a maximum limit of throws per industries could never meet the parade. There would be less litter demands of the really big krewes and more people paying attention that toss throws numbering in the to the design of the parade. If floats hundreds of thousands. But maybe were judged for their beauty rather Carnival can take small steps. than for their beads there would What if the big krewes would be more creativity in the parades. We caution that there is somedesignate one of their units as a “green float” to throw nothing but thing that we do like about bead regionally made, recycled and envi- proliferation: Only in New Orleans is ronmentally friendly throws. Its there the year- round sight of beads riders would not be expected to toss dangling from oak trees, particularly thousands of trinkets along parade route. The image but a few hundred, of beads growing on trees which, if designed An original adds to the city’s magic. The ©Mike Luckovich clever enough, could, Cartoon for New effect, however, could be just because of the limited Orleans Magazine as magical if the beads, like supply, be more of a the leaves, were embraced collector’s item. Their future would by the environment. Ideally, in the be destined more for a display case world of Carnival, Mother Nature than the gutter. should be Queen.
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