How to Recycle Mardi Gras Beads
During Mardi Gras in New Orleans, hundreds of thousands of beads are tossed from parade floats, building balconies and people on the street. Tourists take many of these beads home, but many more lie in the street, lost and forgotten. If you have Mardi Gras beads, don't just toss them into the garbage when the party is over. Recycle the beads by using them again the following year or donating them to a worthy charity.
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Instructions
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Call Arc of Greater New Orleans to make sure they are accepting beads; the most common time to donate is directly after Mardi Gras. Drive to one of their four locations to drop off your beads; see References. Make sure the bags and boxes you have packed them in do not contain anything but beads.
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Make your beads into a piece of art. Cut the necklaces apart so you have individual beads. Lay a piece of foil on a round pizza tray, and cover it with the beads. You can use all one color, or mix it up with a variety of colors. Heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and place the pizza pan in the oven. After 15 minutes, rotate the tray and leave it five more minutes. Take it out of the oven, and lay just the layer of beads over a bowl with the foil side down; it will cool to the size and shape of the bowl. Allow to cool, then take it off the bowl and remove the foil. Don't put food in the bowl; use it instead as a decorative piece on a table or to hold non-food items.
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Save the beads for next year. Simply put them in a box or bag, and store them. Just don't forget next year that you have them packed away.
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Tips & Warnings
Melt the beads as you would for a bowl, but lay it over an existing lampshade that you have. This works best with hard plastic lampshades that you can remove from the lamp. Once the beads have cooled, place your new shade on the lamp instead of the old one.
The beads will be hot out of the oven, so wear protective gloves when laying them over the bowl.
References
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images
