WWNO skyline header graphic
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Local Newscast
Hear the latest from the WWNO/WRKF Newsroom.

Support local, independent journalism on WWNO with your Member Fest gift now! Click the donate button or Call 844-790-1094.

New Orleans Hopes 'Gutter Buddies' Will Keep Mardi Gras Beads Out Of Storm Drains

Mardi Gras beads strewn on a New Orleans street.
Gerald Herbert
/
AP
Mardi Gras beads strewn on a New Orleans street.

In New Orleans, Mardi Gras is not just Fat Tuesday itself, it's a multi-week celebration. It's also a huge mess.

The plastic beads, cups, and trinkets that fly from the floats don't all get caught — even by the most enthusiastic crowds. And after a bead has hit the ground it immediately turns from prize to garbage, especially in this year's rain and mud.

After each day's parades, street sweeper trucks and crews do their best to pick up the parade detritus — beads and other throws, beer cans, plastic bags, light-up necklaces that have lost their glow. City officials have even used the garbage tonnage they collect as a sort of carnival-success barometer.

But even with the massive cleanup operation, some trash gets left behind. And it turns out Mardi Gras is terrible for the flood-prone city's storm drains. Last month, officials announced that cleaning crews had pulled 93,000 pounds of old beads out of catch basins on the main parade route.

Dani Galloway, who runs the New Orleans Department of Public Works, calls that number "a smack in the face." So with carnival season looming, Galloway made it her mission to keep more beads from clogging up the drains.

A 'gutter buddy' blocks Mardi Gras detritus from a storm drain opening near the parade route in New Orleans.
/ Courtesy of Daniel T. Smith
/
Courtesy of Daniel T. Smith
A 'gutter buddy' blocks Mardi Gras detritus from a storm drain opening near the parade route in New Orleans.

"It was a simple as a visit to Home Depot to try to figure out what we could do that would be, obviously, low cost, a fairly quick turnaround," she says.

Galloway's department experimented with wire and two-by-fours before landing on a combination of metal grates and big orange sandbags. The bead-blockers are affectionately known as "gutter buddies."

The city spent about $30,000 on supplies and hired a contractor to make hundreds of the filter contraptions and install them in storm drains all along the parade route.

The devices are rudimentary, but they seem to be working. On a recent evening, parade-goer Willie Noveck set up his folding chair next to one of the orange gutter buddies, now a bit grimy from days of rain. Holding his boxed wine under one arm, Noveck affirmed the gutter buddies' success. "They're catching, I guess, a lot of plastic bags," he said. "They're definitely doing something!"

A simpler solution to the storm drain problem might be to just...stop throwing beads from Mardi Gras floats. But for Noveck, like many New Orleanians, that's not an option.

"Stop throwing beads?!" he shouted, incredulous. "You cannotbe serious about that. That's ridiculous."

Noveck says he has a better idea: parade-goers should focus more on their fielding skills. His proposal? "Let's catch all the beads so we don't have this problem!"

For now, if the people don't catch all the beads, the gutter buddies will.

Copyright 2018 WWNO - New Orleans Public Radio

Tegan has reported on the coast for WWNO since 2015. In this role she has covered a wide range of issues and subjects related to coastal land loss, coastal restoration, and the culture and economy of Louisiana’s coastal zone, with a focus on solutions and the human dimensions of climate change. Her reporting has been aired nationally on Planet Money, Reveal, All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Marketplace, BBC, CBC and other outlets. She’s a recipient of the Pulitzer Connected Coastlines grant, CUNY Resilience Fellowship, Metcalf Fellowship, and countless national and regional awards.
Evie Stone is the Supervising Editor at Weekend Edition. She collaborates with show staff and newsroom colleagues to ensure that Weekend Edition covers essential news, tells human stories and occasionally makes the audience bark with laughter.

👋 Looks like you could use more news. Sign up for our newsletters.

* indicates required
New Orleans Public Radio News
New Orleans Public Radio Info