'Trash Parade' unites New Orleanians wearied by waste pickup delays
By Harrison Golden
WDSU 6 News
September 18, 2021
NEW ORLEANS -- What do you get when you mix piling trash with mounting frustrations? A parade in New Orleans.
About 100 people donned trash-themed costumes through heavy rain and heavier stenches Saturday for one purpose: telling the city government and its contractors to collect garbage that has been souring their curbs for weeks. Participants marched to City Hall from Elysian Fields and St. Claude avenues, trash bags in hand.
"We've all been traumatized lately," said Aaron Grant, who organized the so-called "Trash Parade." "We went through COVID. We went through the hurricane. Now they're asking us to patiently fester in a pile of garbage."
Grant, whose garbage has sat uncollected outside his Marigny home for almost three weeks, initially conceived the parade as a joke. "If [the waste] doesn't get picked up by Wednesday," he wrote Monday on Facebook, "I may organize the first annual Trash Parade." But after more people saw his post — and after trash trucks missed Grant's deadline — his satire became reality.
Demonstrators were quick to share frustrations along the route.
"We just took out the trash for our neighbors yesterday," Marigny resident Megan Brunious said. "There were maggots and piles of moldy rot. It was the grossest thing."
Others in the crowd stuck to character.
"Please pick me up," said one paradegoer who wore a brown bag over his face and went by the pseudonym "Mr. Smell E. Can." "I have been really neglected. I have not had any contact with anyone for four weeks, and I smell bad."
City officials blame the lagging collections on a nationwide labor shortage tied to the COVID-19 pandemic. Metro Service Group, a city contractor that has faced particular pickup woes, has also cited a lack of workers. But those at Saturday's parade pin the issues on pay.
"These trash people definitely need to be paid a living wage," Brunious said.
"We're going to investigate and find out," Grant said. "We want to see the contracts."
In the meantime, marchers hope the rain on their parade will wash away the stench they've been smelling.
"We're going to feel a lot better after being rained on with stinky trash," Brunious said.
(This story first appeared on WDSU. Click here to see the original post.)
By Harrison Golden
WDSU 6 News
September 18, 2021
NEW ORLEANS -- What do you get when you mix piling trash with mounting frustrations? A parade in New Orleans.
About 100 people donned trash-themed costumes through heavy rain and heavier stenches Saturday for one purpose: telling the city government and its contractors to collect garbage that has been souring their curbs for weeks. Participants marched to City Hall from Elysian Fields and St. Claude avenues, trash bags in hand.
"We've all been traumatized lately," said Aaron Grant, who organized the so-called "Trash Parade." "We went through COVID. We went through the hurricane. Now they're asking us to patiently fester in a pile of garbage."
Grant, whose garbage has sat uncollected outside his Marigny home for almost three weeks, initially conceived the parade as a joke. "If [the waste] doesn't get picked up by Wednesday," he wrote Monday on Facebook, "I may organize the first annual Trash Parade." But after more people saw his post — and after trash trucks missed Grant's deadline — his satire became reality.
Demonstrators were quick to share frustrations along the route.
"We just took out the trash for our neighbors yesterday," Marigny resident Megan Brunious said. "There were maggots and piles of moldy rot. It was the grossest thing."
Others in the crowd stuck to character.
"Please pick me up," said one paradegoer who wore a brown bag over his face and went by the pseudonym "Mr. Smell E. Can." "I have been really neglected. I have not had any contact with anyone for four weeks, and I smell bad."
City officials blame the lagging collections on a nationwide labor shortage tied to the COVID-19 pandemic. Metro Service Group, a city contractor that has faced particular pickup woes, has also cited a lack of workers. But those at Saturday's parade pin the issues on pay.
"These trash people definitely need to be paid a living wage," Brunious said.
"We're going to investigate and find out," Grant said. "We want to see the contracts."
In the meantime, marchers hope the rain on their parade will wash away the stench they've been smelling.
"We're going to feel a lot better after being rained on with stinky trash," Brunious said.
(This story first appeared on WDSU. Click here to see the original post.)