Central City thrift store and sewing school provide remedies for the ‘high cost of cheap fashion’

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Listening to the radio while driving nine years ago, Alison Parker heard a segment about the book “Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion” by Elizabeth Cline, and it opened her eyes to the problem of waste and pollution in the fashion and clothing business. 

“I knew I could no longer sit on the sidelines and do nothing,” Parker said. Eventually, it lead her to found ricRACK, a nonprofit organization its website describes as “combining creative skill building with environmental responsibility.” 

Everything that ricRACK does, Parker said, in some way combats the waste prevalent in the fashion industry, which is estimated be the second-largest consumer of the world’s water supply and pollutes the oceans with micro plastics. What’s more, 85% of all textiles go to the dump each year. And when this happens, the dyes and chemicals from the fabrics leach into the ground water and release greenhouse gasses. 

To promote the productive recycling of clothes, ricRACK has opened a thrift store in Central City that sells donated clothes as well as those that have been used in films and TV shows, and sponsors a variety of sewing classes. Parker herself worked in the costume department for Cirque du Soleil for five years and then as a costume designer for theater and films, so she has those connections.

sustainability

Audubon Zoo is recycling strands of holiday lights to aid wildlife

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New Orleanians will be dragging their Christmas trees to the curb for coastal restoration after Jan. 6. but what all those strands of lights? Most holiday lights are not bio-degradable — and they are dangerous to animals that can get tangled in the strands. You can make a positive impact on the natural world by recycling your lights and keeping them out of the landfill.

Christmas

City releases information on holiday trash collection, Christmas tree recycling

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There will be no curbside trash collection on Friday, Dec. 25, in honor of Christmas Day, or the following Friday, Jan. 1, in honor of the New Year’s holiday. Curbside trash collection will resume on the next regularly scheduled collection day. For areas with Friday recycling collection, Metro Service Group and Richard’s Disposal will conduct special collection days.

arts, books and music

Sarah Broom on ‘The Yellow House,’ marginalized communities and climate change

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By Emily Carmichael, Uptown Messenger

Writer Sarah Broom is from New Orleans, but not the part of New Orleans where she spoke on Tuesday (Feb. 4), the famed, oak-lined streets of Uptown. She’s from a yellow house on Wilson Avenue in New Orleans East. Her experience in that house — and what it says about New Orleans, the United States, and our relationship to our environment — is the subject of her debut book “The Yellow House: A Memoir.” It won the 2019 National Book Award for nonfiction. Broom was interviewed in Woldenberg Art Center on Tulane University’s Uptown campus by Atlantic staff writer Van Newkirk, another potent investigator of place and environment.

city government

How to get your Christmas tree recycled

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Twelfth Night is the official end of the Christmas season, as well as the beginning of the Carnival season. So it’s time to take down the Christmas trees. If you want your tree to be recycled, here’s what you need to do:

• Remove all ornaments, tinsel, lights and the tree stand. • Place the tree at the location of your regular garbage collection before 5 a.m. on your second regularly scheduled second collection day. That’s either Thursday, Jan.

city government

City skipping trash pickup on Christmas, but adding makeup day for recycling

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There will be no curbside trash or recycling collection on Christmas Day or New Year’s Day. Curbside trash collection will resume on the next regularly scheduled collection day. If you have Wednesday and Saturday garbage pickup, your trash will be picked up Saturday as scheduled. For areas with Wednesday recycling collection, Metro Disposal and Richard’s Disposal will conduct special collection days after Christmas (for all those cardboard boxes and wrapping paper). Metro Disposal will collect recycling on Thursday, Dec.

environment

Loyola Academy to bring conservation knowledge to Mirabeau Gardens in Gentilly

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by Rae Walberg, The Loyola Maroon

In the heart of Gentilly, 25 acres of Federal Emergency Management Agency-funded space was recently granted to build Mirabeau Water Gardens, a place where water conservation will be modeled on a larger-scale. For Loyola professors Aimée Thomas and Bob Thomas, this was a dream ten years in the making. The idea for the grant stemmed from Loyola’s relationship with the Sisters of Saint Joseph, who donated the space to the city when they left it after Hurricane Katrina. “They actually wanted Loyola to take over the property once they deemed that they weren’t going to be there anymore to use it for environmental education,” Director of the Environment Program Aimée Thomas said. Since Loyola didn’t have the resources to manage the land, the grant was issued to the city of New Orleans and funded by the university, Entergy Corporation, AT&T and Waggonner & Ball Architects.

coastal preservation

Tulane researchers partner with United Houma Nation on climate and health resilience study

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From Tulane University

The United Houma Nation is a Louisiana state-recognized tribe trying to maintain its unique culture during dramatic climatic, environmental and socioeconomic change. A new project awarded to Tulane University researchers from the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine aims to enable the United Houma Nation to determine how to support its citizens to adapt to climate-related and other short- and long-term stressors while maintaining the integrity of its community and culture. The three-year, $2.1 million research project was awarded by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Gulf Research Program’s Thriving Communities Grants 5 funding opportunity. Tribal citizens have sustained livelihoods and communities in southeast Louisiana’s shifting landscape for generations. Today, however, ongoing coastal land loss combined with the cumulative impacts of health, social, and economic disparities pose new challenges for the tribe.

environment

‘I’m fighting for my future and my life’: Kids stage climate protest in Uptown

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By Sharon Lurye, Uptown Messenger

Dozens of young people, from toddlers to teenagers, staged a protest against climate change on Friday morning at the corner of Napoleon and St. Charles avenues. They were part of a worldwide youth movement known as the “Global Climate Strike,” where students walk out of school in order to push politicians to take action to combat climate change and reduce the country’s reliance on fossil fuels. “We can persuade the grown-ups,” said 13-year-old Maya Verhaal. “Since they make the choices, we can persuade them to change this world.”

community meetings

Renewable energy campaign kicks off with event tonight in Broadmoor

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Audubon Louisiana, in partnership with the Energy Future New Orleans Coalition, is kicking off its campaign for a Resilient Renewable Portfolio Standard New Orleans with a community meeting tonight. The event for City Council Districts A and B will be held at the Broadmoor Arts and Wellness Center, 3900 Gen. Taylor St., 2nd floor, from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.

The group plans to ask the New Orleans City Council to support a strong Renewable Portfolio Standard. “By committing to 100% renewable energy by 2040, New Orleans can become a leader in the clean energy economy while addressing the greatest challenges faced by residents,” the coalition states. Organizer Angie Torres will be guiding the meeting, and Monique Harden of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice is a guest speaker. Community members are also invited to speak.