What started as a small cleanup effort has grown into a coalition-run program that walks 15+ Mardi Gras parades each year. Here's how it happened, and who made it happen.
That's the estimated amount of waste Mardi Gras season generates every year in New Orleans — beads, cups, bottles, food packaging, throws of every description.
Most of it goes to the landfill. Some of it goes into the storm drains. RecycleDAT exists to change the trajectory of even a fraction of that waste. We're not going to solve it in a single season. We're going to do it one parade at a time, one bin at a time, one shift at a time, for as long as it takes.
It's about staying true to the values of our city, without trashing it in the process.
A few neighbors, tired of watching beads and cups wash into the storm drains, decided to try something. They assembled a group of volunteers and hit the route to give it a shot.
By Carnival '24 it was a dozen parades and a team of 50+. By '26 the partner list had grown even more — Grounds Krewe, Glass Half Full, Osprey, Tulane, the City, NOLA & Co, Coca-Cola, Dr Pepper, Every Can Counts. It works because people keep showing up.
Local hands on a local problem. Every station is staffed by someone who lives by the route or grew up down the block. We hire local before we hire from anywhere else.
Mardi Gras is sacred. We work with the party — not against it. We don't lecture or scold. We just find creative ways to party on, without so much waste.
Every pound we collect is weighed and sent to a verified partner. Every year's total is published. We want our community to feel confident in our program and our impact.
