LAFAYETTE, La. — The Mardi Gras season may be over, but between the beads, trash and other trinkets left behind, one more krewe is hitting the streets.
They call themselves the "Krewe de Coulee." Their goal? Post-parade cleanup to keep Lafayette clean and beautiful.
"If we don't, who does? Someone's gotta do it and set an example," says UL Lafayette Sustainability Coordinator, Jonathan Brown, who coordinates the krewe.
In its second year, the krewe is now comprised of more than 170 people who are either students or staff at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, or community stakeholders supporting the cause, like Parish Proud and Keep Lafayette Beautiful. Their reason is a simple one.
"60 percent of all pollutants in waterways are attributed to litter, so it's super important to get all of that off the ground before it makes its way into waterways," says Blair Begnaud, Assistant Director of Sustainability at UL Lafayette. "Beads and debris can block storm and water drains which can be super problematic, so it's also for our safety that we keep all of this litter and trash out of our waterways and off the ground."
Starting this year at Blackham Coliseum and then moving down the entire four-mile parade route, volunteers worked Thursday afternoon to clear leftover Carnival crud.
During the krewe's inaugural year in 2023, Begnaud says 45 trash bags worth of trash were collected by a small but mighty group of 30 volunteers along the Johnston Street stretch of Lafayette's parade route alone. This year, Begnaud says the force is much stronger, with more feet on the ground garnering not only greater involvement, but a greater impact.
"This year, we're expecting well over 100 bags collected and at least 100 pounds," she tells me. "We're gonna see some really heavy weights, but we're excited to get all the data this year because we're also using our EPA litter survey app.
The app in question is funded by a half-million dollar EPA grant Begnaud says the university received about five years ago. It helps track the impact of litter locally, and yes, during Mardi Gras, but also throughout the year.
"With Mardi Gras, there's almost a sense of normalized littering, it's just part of the culture," she says. "But we wanna start flipping the script, put out more trash cans, making it more accessible to throw away your trash correctly."
Begnaud notes Louisiana's intricate system of waterways, many which trail right through Acadiana. The numbers collected by the app, she says, help target where and why exactly littering takes place with the goal of better avoiding it.
"This is helping Lafayette stay clean and that's the most important part," says Krewe de Coulee volunteer and senior Engineering and Technology Management major Korlece Utley, also a member of UL Lafayette's Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. "We just want everyone to know to be of service to all mankind and you know, just help us stay clean."
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