Posted by: John S Kiernan

For many people, Mardi Gras is all about the three B’s: beads, booze and the Big Easy. But this multi-week carnival, which runs from Epiphany through Fat Tuesday every year, isn’t confined to New Orleans or the tawdry pursuits of partygoers.

Mardi Gras actually has a Christian foundation, dating back to 17th century Europe, as a time for festivities before the fasting and sacrifice of Lent. It was first celebrated in the United States in what is now Mobile, Ala. And it has become an economic force, generating nearly $750 million for the New Orleans and Mobile areas each year.

With that in mind, WalletHub analyzed the event from top to bottom to help all the partiers out there understand what they’re toasting to and how even the raunchiest bashes can pack a big-time financial punch. You can check out all of the Mardi Gras facts we found in the infographic below, followed by a Q&A with a panel of leading experts. Enjoy and be safe out there!

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Embed on your website<a href="http://ift.tt/2Fj1K1G"> <img src="//d2e70e9yced57e.cloudfront.net/wallethub/posts/47229/2018-mardi-gras-by-the-numbers-v5.png" width="" height="" alt="Mardi-Gras-By-the-Numbers-v5" /> </a> <div style="width:px;font-size:12px;color:#888;">Source: <a href="http://ift.tt/2EFVhfT>  

Ask the Experts: Mardi Gras Madness

For a closer look at all Mardi Gras has to offer and how it can get even better in the future, we posed the following questions to a panel of leading experts in the fields of personal finance, government and environmental studies. You can check out their bios and responses below.

1. What tips do you have for a person that wishes to enjoy Mardi Gras on a budget?
2. How can local authorities in New Orleans and elsewhere promote safety and reduce alcohol related accidents during Mardi Gras?
3. How can we reduce the environmental impact of Mardi Gras, particularly with regard to the plastic beads handed out during the celebration?

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• Bruce D. Bartholow Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri
• Rose Marie Ward Professor of Kinesiology and Health and Associate Dean of the Graduate School at Miami University
• Liz Williams President of the National Food & Beverage Foundation and Director of the Southern Food & Beverage Museum
• Gaytha A. Langlois Professor of Environmental Policy in the Department of Science & Technology at Bryant University
• Callie Babbitt Associate Professor of Sustainability in the Golisano Institute for Sustainability at Rochester Institute of Technology
• Elizabeth Allison Program Chair of Ecology, Spirituality and Religion & Associate Professor of Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness at the California Institute of Integral Studies
• Kim D. Jones Regents Professor and Director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy and the Environment at Texas A&M University-Kingsville
• Christopher E. Kohler Adjunct Instructor and Laboratory Safety Manager for the Office of Environmental Health and Safety in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Bloomington

Bruce D. Bartholow Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri

How can local authorities in New Orleans and elsewhere promote safety and reduce alcohol-related accidents during Mardi Gras?

There are a lot of very basic behavioral things that individuals can do to keep themselves safer when in a drinking context. These generally are referred to as harm-reduction strategies, and they include things like:

• Eat a meal before going out to drink;
• Alternate alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages throughout the day/evening;
• Never leave your drink unattended;
• Don’t go out alone -- party with a buddy or a group of people you trust;
• For women in particular, never leave a party with a stranger or walk home alone when intoxicated.

Cities can also contribute to a safer experience by, for example, making transportation available and convenient. This can dramatically cut down on the number of alcohol-related driving incidents. A police presence, with officers trained to help reduce tensions (as opposed to simply trying to intimidate revelers), can also be very helpful.

Rose Marie Ward Professor of Kinesiology and Health and Associate Dean of the Graduate School at Miami University

How can local authorities in New Orleans and elsewhere promote safety and reduce alcohol-related accidents during Mardi Gras?

There are a number of things that local authorities can do. They can encourage people to know their limits and plan ahead. If they reach their limit, they should consider leaving the drinking location and giving their body time to metabolize the alcohol. They can also encourage establishments and drinkers to alternate non-alcoholic drinks with alcoholic drinks. Establishments could offer water and other non-alcoholic drinks for free to encourage safe drinking. In addition, establishments could offer food at lower cost to encourage drinking with food in your stomach. Finally, local authorities can remind people to sip their drinks instead of chugging.

Liz Williams President of the National Food & Beverage Foundation and Director of the Southern Food & Beverage Museum

How can we reduce the environmental impact of Mardi Gras, particularly with regard to the plastic beads handed out during the celebration?

Currently there are many organizations that recycle beads. These are church groups and other community groups. They sort the beads a resell them to people who ride in parades. That does help. What you are suggesting -- that something other than beads be thrown -- would take a radical shift of culture. Perhaps a krewe might decide to make a statement about the environment and select environmentally-friendlier throws. There are also plastic cups, but people collect and use those throughout the year. The Young Leadership Council has a recycling program that it conducts with the Arc of Greater New Orleans. This year, in 2018, they have expanded their efforts and have collection stations along the parade routes, so that before you leave the parade, you can effortlessly leave your beads for recycling. An artist, Stephan Wanger, is well known for his mosaics made with recycled Mardi Gras beads.

How can local authorities in New Orleans and elsewhere promote safety and reduce alcohol-related accidents during Mardi Gras?

Drinking is actually prohibited on floats to avoid accidents like falling off a float. Although there are accidents that occur, Mardi Gras is remarkably safe, considering the number of people, especially tourists, who crowd the streets. The police are very experienced at friendly crowd control and are good at spotting problems. People can be observant and enjoy themselves, pacing themselves. They should drink water or other non-alcoholic beverages in addition to alcohol during Mardi Gras. I think of locals as professional drinkers -- they know that the day is long, and that passing out or becoming so drunk that they stop enjoying the day is self-defeating. Often visitors are amateur drinkers -- they drink as though their goal is to drink as much as possible. Then they do not enjoy themselves and make others miserable, too.

What tips do you have for a person that wishes to enjoy Mardi Gras while on a budget?

Mardi Gras does not have to be expensive. If you make travel arrangements early, you can usually find bargains through hotels and motels, local B&Bs and Airbnb-type housing. Inexpensive street food abounds during Mardi Gras. Grocery stores along most parade routes have prepared food available for instant picnics. Going to parade after parade -- watching the spectacle -- is free. Now you can step it up and buy tickets to the stands on the parade routes, eat at fine restaurants, and even buy tickets to balls. But those choices do not have to be made to enjoy the celebration from the streets. There are parades, the costumed people wandering the streets, the general sense of revelry, the marching krewes that one can informally join as they wander through the streets. There are costume contests, Mardi Gras Indians, marching bands and dancing groups, all of which can be enjoyed at no cost at all. It is a participatory experience, not one just for observation. Gaytha A. Langlois Professor of Environmental Policy in the Department of Science & Technology at Bryant University

How can we reduce the environmental impact of Mardi Gras, particularly with regard to the plastic beads handed out during the celebration?

The story of carnival beads is replete with complexity and ambiguity. As part of a broad-based fantasy of royalty and merriment embedded in local New Orleans culture, the sheer volume of the beads coupled with their toxic contaminants leads to unintended consequences and externalized costs to the city of New Orleans. Managing aging infrastructure such as sewers and storm drains is, by nature, difficult and expensive, and this added waste load makes matters worse. As noted in a recent article by David Redmon in “The Conversation” and subsequently shared recently on PRI Radio, the problem is further magnified because the plastics are derived from petroleum and assembled in Chinese factories, where workers are told that the beads are being made for American royalty. The beads contain lead, which is a known toxicant that can cause brain damage in children. Yet children are broadly exposed to the trinkets, and most parents would not expect them to be dangerous.

In fact, Howard Mielke, a researcher at Tulane University’s Department of Pharmacology has documented the presence of lead in the soils located directly along the Mardi Gras parade routes, translated to about 2 tons of lead hitting the streets each carnival season, a portion of which goes home with families that could be exposed to lead dusts. Mielke’s findings indicate that the total waste accumulation of roughly 150 tons by the end of Mardi Gras was found to contain toxic levels of lead, bromine, arsenic, phthalate plasticizers, halogens, cadmium, chromium, mercury and chlorine, on and inside the beads. In 2013, researchers Jeff Gearhart and Karla Peña, associated with HealthyStuff.org and the Ecology Center in New Orleans, determined by using High Definition X-Ray Fluorescence (HDXRF) analysis and other laboratory testing that the beads contained elevated bromine levels, chlorine compounds, and lead, many of which exceeded safe levels of exposure.

Given that children are especially attracted to the beads, HealthyStuff.org recommends that children should not be allowed to put the beads in their mouths, that parents should use baby wipes to clean hands after handling the beads, the beads that have been caught should be washed, collectors should avoid placing the beads in sunlight and should never burn them, and all who regularly handle the beads should wear gloves. Others have urged caution for the workers who prepare the plastics and assemble the beads in Chinese factories.

Longer-term responses could include the following approaches:

• Temporary installation of “gutter buddies” to screen carnival beads from rolling down street drains;
• Design better collection systems for cleaning the streets after Mardi Gras, so as to capture as much of the bead waste as possible before the next rainstorm event, coupled with proper safe disposal of the beads;
• Develop and support a local manufacturing presence to produce beads that are biodegradable, thereby enhancing the local economy and avoiding the unintended pollution (see ZomBeads company);
• Engage the local community in building a more resilient approach to the Mardi Gras celebration, including ideas from children and families who are likely to be most harmed by exposure.

One might think of the matter as “taking back Mardi Gras” for enhancing benefits and reducing harm for the local residents.

Callie Babbitt Associate Professor of Sustainability in the Golisano Institute for Sustainability at Rochester Institute of Technology

How can we reduce the environmental impact of Mardi Gras, particularly with regard to the plastic beads handed out during the celebration?

This is a case like many we see in the current “linear” or “take-make-waste” model of our society. Plastic beads are produced from polymers created from crude oil, and after their very short life, they are disposed with minimal opportunity for recycling. Our goal is to change this linear system into more of a closed-loop system, or a circular economy. This means sourcing materials made from renewable resources, extending product life through reuse or repurposing, and then recycling to minimize the total amount of materials that end up in landfills or as litter in the environment

For Mardi Gras beads, this may mean selecting plastics that have a high recycled content or designing strands to be slightly more durable. For attendees, there are avenues to “throw back” your beads by bringing them back to an organization, like the Arc of Greater New Orleans, who collects and repurposes used beads, or sorts and repackages them for resale the following year. This strategy creates jobs, lowers costs, and keeps beads out of the landfill.

For any large event, there are other environmentally-friendly strategies that can be carried out at an individual or organizational level. For example, other waste streams include cans, bottles, and cups which can be reduced by using reusable beverage containers. Many cities are starting to implement food waste collection at large events, so that food, as well as biodegradable cutlery and plates, can be composted instead of disposed in a landfill, where they lead to greenhouse gas emissions. Any large event, like Mardi Gras, also has significant environmental impacts associated with fuel and energy used when attendees travel to and stay in the area. Sharing rides and lodging can cut down on energy consumption. Programs like bike sharing make transportation within a city a lot greener, and potentially safer, as well. In any of these cases, not only can you reduce your environmental footprint, but you also cut down on costs.

Elizabeth Allison Program Chair of Ecology, Spirituality and Religion & Associate Professor of Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness at the California Institute of Integral Studies

How can we reduce the environmental impact of Mardi Gras, particularly with regard to the plastic beads handed out during the celebration?

Mardi Gras does generate a tremendous amount of waste, much of it being plastic derived from fossil fuels. Other news outlets have reported that ArcGNO collects and reuses Mardi Gras beads to support its programs for mentally and physically challenged adults. Krewes can purchase these reused beads. Artists use the beads in their artwork. Beads can be upcycled into decorative objects, murals, crafts, and mosaics.

In addition, there are current efforts to make biodegradable beads that will break down in months rather than hundreds of years. A professor at Louisiana State University is working on developing biodegradable beads from oils generated from micro-algae, and ZomBeads makes repurposed and recycled “throws” (items tossed from the floats).

Kim D. Jones Regents Professor and Director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy and the Environment at Texas A&M University-Kingsville

How can we reduce the environmental impact of Mardi Gras, particularly with regard to the plastic beads handed out during the celebration?

Two options could include some bead recycling stations in critical areas, for participants and revelers to help manage the beads that have been discarded or thrown down, and also, some screens around storm curb cuts or inlets, to capture those that don’t make it into the recycle bins.

How can local authorities in New Orleans and elsewhere promote safety and reduce alcohol-related accidents during Mardi Gras?

Improved ride sharing, some short hop, free public transit, or reduced rates for Uber and taxis would be a great idea to keep revelers safe and out of harm’s way.

What tips do you have for a person that wishes to enjoy Mardi Gras while on a budget?

Since public transit in New Orleans is reasonable and regional, many of us could be more cost-effective by staying in nearby areas with lower prices for accommodations, such as Metairie or Kenner, and commuting to festivities.

Christopher E. Kohler Adjunct Instructor and Laboratory Safety Manager for the Office of Environmental Health and Safety in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Bloomington

How can we reduce the environmental impact of Mardi Gras, particularly with regard to the plastic beads handed out during the celebration?

Use biodegradable beads. Don’t throw trinkets, hand them to people. Give them stuff they want to keep, like embroidered little pillows, footballs, or Zulu coconuts.

What tips do you have for a person that wishes to enjoy Mardi Gras while on a budget?

Don’t drink too much. Camp at a park or campground, or get a decent hotel or rent a house (Airbnb) a year in advance. Stay with relatives or friends if they’ll have you (don’t freeload).

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