In New Orleans, a number of organizations are looking for ways to make Mardi Gras more sustainable, including one plan to produce biodegradable beads from microalgae.
According to the Sante Fe New Mexican, Louisiana State University biology professor Naohiro Kato is using microalgae to produce versions of the ubiquitous party beads that biodegrade in months, as opposed to hundreds of years. The beads, however, are three times more expensive to produce than conventional products. “There’s not just one way to solve it,” Kato said. “We should tackle it from a number of different ways.”
Although Mardi Gras generates hundreds of millions of dollars for the city’s businesses, last year’s festivities led to 93,000 pounds of discarded beads.