It’s one thing to stage Mardi Gras parades and quite another to clean up after them.
Matt Torri, Director of the Department of Sanitation for the city of New Orleans says it’s a “herculean effort” costing in the ballpark of $2 million.
He says that covers a ten-day period from February 2nd to February 11th, utilizing hundreds of workers and upwards of 115 pieces of heavy equipment.
Torri says, “We have around 250 laborers and 80 pieces of heavy equipment.” That’s for a typical day of parading, which may involve a dozen parades or more.
He says, “We split the the parade route into three zones. As the parade passes each zone we will commence cleaning, which will allow us to complete cleaning within three hours.”
Torri notes that on a peak day like Endymion Saturday, “We have over 475 laborers and over 115 pieces of heavy equipment as we’re operating in Uptown and Mid-City on that day.”
Debris that’s collected is taken to the Riverbirch Landfill where it will then be examined for possibly recycling rather than the trash that most of it is.