Mardi Gras is quickly coming up! Taking place this year on Tuesday, March 4th, the holiday is most associated with New Orleans, where the party does not stop between January 6th and the actual day. But there is another aspect heavily associated with both Mardi Gras and the Louisiana city which is less positive: the beads. Although an iconic symbol of the parades, these green, yellow and purple beads create an incredible amount of waste. But could 3D printing be the solution?
Throwing and catching these color beads is a beloved tradition during Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, with the necklaces covering plants, buildings and people through the month of January and February. But these quickly become waste. Last year, discarded beads clogged storm drains, posing a danger to aquatic life in the areas and in 2014, the New Orleans government spent $1.5M to pick up about 1,500 tons of Mardi Gras-induced waste including beads. That’s why this year some Mardi Gras parades have even banned them.
A closer look at LSU’s 3D printed Mardi Gras beads
Now there is yet another possibility. A Louisiana State University (LSU) team has made 3D printed, biodegradable Mardi Gras beans. But that’s not all. The beads also include seeds, meaning that they will grow into Earth-friendly plants wherever they land and decompose.
3D Printed Biodegradable Beads for Mardi Gras
In this project, two students in Dr. Naohiro Kato’s LSU Lab, Alexis Strain and Lauren Rogers, decided to try and find a solution. For them, the goal was to develop alternatives for Mardi Gras beads that will not cause as much waste. They are doing this by building upon previous work done by Dr. Kato to produce beans from microscopic algae, which, while effective, proved to be too expensive.
This new version is cheaper than that previous project and involves 3D printers and bio-based plastics which are able to degrade with the help of plants and soil bacteria. The creations even have seeds inside, inspiring their name PlantMe Beads. The idea is that the plat roots emerging from the germinated seeds could attract bacteria to promote faster breakdown of plastic.
Currently, the team is still researching the best polymers to use for these beads. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) are produced by bacteria, which would make them ideal, but the current 3D printing quality and color consistency is limited. On the other hand, PLA, widely used in 3D printing, is biodegradable but only under certain conditions making it less suited. That is why the team is exploring right now the optimal combination of plants and soil bacteria to accelerate degradation, according to a press release from LSU.
The goal is for the 3D printed beads to biodegrade naturally, even planting a seed, helping to reduce waste on Mardi Gras
The Benefits of Using 3D Printing
The choice of 3D printing was no coincidence either. 3D printing attracted the researchers for a number of reasons including decreased costs, facilitating do-it-yourself 3D printed beads and the ability to scale the process through 3D printing farms.
Strain expands, “I see 3D printing as a potential solution to some broader issues with plastic, because you can print things that are very specific to your needs without the need for transport and shipping, which can add additional ecological costs. I always wanted to be involved in some environmental aspect of Louisiana. I think here we have some beautiful wildlife, some beautiful wetlands, and that’s something that’s worth preserving.”
While the project will not be in time for Mardi Gras 2025, the team hopes to be able to mass produce these 3D printed beads for Mardi Gras 2026. Already they are in discussions with the Krewe of Freret in New Orleans, one of the largest parades and which stopped throwing beads this year. You can find out more HERE.
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