This New Orleans Mardi Gras Program Turns Parade Litter Into Community Support—Here’s How to Volunteer

New Orleans’ Mardi Gras might be known for its decadent, indulgent bacchanalia, but if you’re traveling to the Big Easy for the party, it doesn’t just have to be about the booze and the beads. Thanks to the Recycle Dat! volunteer program, parade goers can give back to the city without straying too far from Bourbon Street.

The initiative organizes volunteers, both locals and visitors, on the two Saturdays and Sundays before Fat Tuesday to gather the thousands of cans—as much as 10,000 pounds worth—discarded along the parade routes. The collected cans are recycled locally, where they’re traded in at market rate for the scrap aluminum. The proceeds are then donated directly to local charities.

While it’s the brainchild of three organizations—Grounds Krewe, Every Can Counts, and the New Orleans Office of Resilience & Sustainability—Recycle Dat!’s origins are also entirely personal. “[I] was trying to solve an environmental problem in my hometown that has developed quickly over the last 20 years,” Brett Davis, the director of Grounds Krewe, told Travel + Leisure. “The 12 days of carnival are, as far as I can tell, the largest litter producing event in the entire world. As much as 2.6 million pounds of tailgate waste, including cans, and parade throws [are] left by crowds on the streets during 10 long days of parading from one end of the city to the other.”

Since it started in 2023, the goal has been to provide an easy and effective way to recycle. But Recycle Dat! has also become one of the most engaging ways for Mardi Gras participants to give back to the city without straying from the party. It has, to date, collected and recycled over 300,000 cans that would otherwise end up in landfills.

“When you recycle aluminum beverage cans, they are most likely to become new cans in the future,” Scott Breen, president of the Can Manufacturers Institute, which created Every Can Counts, told T+L. “Ninety-seven percent of recycled aluminum beverage cans in America become new cans, and on average, aluminum beverage cans go from recycling bin to a newly formed can in less than 60 days.” It’s an added plus that Recycle Dat!’s efforts have yielded thousands of dollars for local charities.

Recycle Dat! also collects glass bottles, beads, and throws, saving even more discarded waste from finding its way into landfills. Anyone interested in helping out is welcome and volunteers can also win prizes; in past years, these have included a stay at buzzy hotel The Chloe and tickets to the city’s famed Jazz Fest.

This year, recycling stations will be set up on St. Charles and Napoleon avenues along the parade route. There’s also the Recycling World epicenter, where revelers can see the waste-sorting process in action and marvel at public art made from recyclables. As the saying (kinda) goes: one city’s trash can also be the same city’s treasure. 

Heading to New Orleans? You can sign up to volunteer with Recycle Dat! at groundskrewe.org.