Around 25 million pounds of plastic beads are dumped on the streets of New Orleans during Mardi Gras.
The beads land in trees, on fences, on roads and in the hands of parade-goers. This begs the question: what is someone supposed to do with the beads once the parade is over?
While some beads are collectibles, others are plain, colored plastic beads thrown from almost every float. If you go to multiple parades during the Mardi Gras season, it’s not uncommon to end up with bags filled with them.
Instead of just throwing the beads away, there are several places where people can donate them to be reused in future parades.
Some of these locations include the Special Olympics Louisiana office, the Audubon Zoo and the Salvation Army at any location. The Special Olympics recycles the beads and Mardi Gras throws for their athletes while the Audubon Zoo and Salvation Army clean and redistribute the beads to be used for parades to come.
If you want to reuse your beads yourself, consider getting creative with them.
Local artists like Tama Distler and Callie Wink are inspired by Louisiana’s culture and utilize collected beads to create colorful works of art.
Distler focuses on placing beads strategically on canvases to depict familiar scenes to Louisiana natives. Some of her works include displays of crawfish, oysters, king cake and Popeyes. When she isn’t making art out of recycled beads, Distler works as a special education teacher.
“All of my pieces are in some way connected to New Orleans because I think the medium of the beads kind of needs to be about New Orleans. My artwork is a celebration of the things that bring the city of New Orleans together culturally,” Distler said.
Wink uses the beads to design denim clothing, adding them to create a pop of color on jeans and jackets. Most of her works are fixated on a Mardi Gras theme with people regularly commissioning her work to wear at parades and events. Wink works as a full-time hairdresser in New Orleans creating the designs in her free time.
“I started by making myself a pair of jeans. I used all of the beads I caught and wore them out to the St. Anne parade the next day. I made a TikTok that went viral and it fueled the fire for me to start making the jeans for other people,” Wink said.
Want to get crafty with your beads? Wink said to make sure you’re staying organized while Distler added hot glue does not work well, but E6000 does if you can stand the fumes.
Wink is open to donations as she continues to create these wearable pieces of art for every holiday.
If you are looking for inspiration or would like to support the artists, check out @phattuesdaydenim and @tamadistler on Instagram.
