Biodegradable Beads Are Helping Mardi Gras Go Green

Vibrant green, purple, and gold strings of beads are a staple of New Orlean’s Carnival, the weekslong festive season which culminates on Tuesday, Feb. 17, with Mardi Gras. But the plastic jewelry that is thrown off parade floats takes an environmental toll. Around 25 million pounds of used Mardi Gras beads are thrown away every year. Several years ago, in 2018, 46 tons of them clogged New Orleans’ storm drains after heavy flooding. 

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This year, a team of researchers at Louisiana State University came up with a more sustainable alternative to the festive staple: 3D printed, biodegradable beads. And over 3,000 of them were thrown this Carnival. 

Naohiro Kato, a researcher and professor in the university’s department of biological sciences first began researching sustainable alternatives to parade throws about 10 years ago, but he found that finding a replacement was harder than it initially seemed. “It’s very challenging to replace these inexpensive plastic materials with more sustainable materials,” he says. 

Originally, he and his team began making beads from a bioplastic derived from micro algae. In 2022, they provided 100 beads to two social clubs that organize parades and events, known as Carnival krewes. However, they realized quickly that it would be too costly to scale up enough to provide beads to the more than 60 groups that participate in Carnival each year—each necklace would cost $10 to $15 to produce, a significant expense given that Krewes are unable to accept sponsorships, and rely on membership support and fundraising to operate. “Mass production is impossible,” he says. 

Soon after, one of his students began experimenting with 3D printing, and created a version using polylactic acid, or PLA. The biodegradable beads, which they’ve named PlantMe beads, break down naturally and contain okra seeds—a staple crop in Southern cuisine. PLA decomposes slowly, but plants can help the material biodegrade five to seven times faster in the soil, Kato says. 

The researchers have made the 3D printing file open access, and envision that, moving forward, libraries and schools with 3D printers can help make more beads for the parade. “We can train that student to print the beads, how [they’re made] and then how they degrade,” he says. “It becomes a community project, and people don’t need to buy the beads anymore. They can produce it themselves as they need.”

It’s just one effort to make the festivities more sustainable. After collecting 10,000 lb. of beads last year, the French Quarter’s Management District is setting up recycling centers in 16 hotels to reduce waste. A coalition called Recycle Dat, organized by the city’s tourism association and the mayor’s Office of Resilience and Sustainability has been scaling up their efforts to reduce the amount of waste that is sent to landfill. In 2025, the group collected 74,500 lb. of bottles, cans, plastic, and parade throws, compared to 8,130 lb. just two years earlier.

Krewes are also looking for ways to cut down on waste during the weeks-long celebrations. Grounds Krewe, a nonprofit working to reduce Carnival waste, began creating sustainable options for groups to throw instead—including packages with items like jambalaya mix, coffee, and soap bars.

A century ago, krewes would throw glass beads from floats, items that were treasured rather than disposed of. Kato hopes that the project will encourage more social clubs to reconsider what they throw. “The true solution for sustainable Mardi Gras is not biodegradation, but people’s mindset,” he says. “Many krewe members are aware it’s time to change.”