内容摘要：Students react as Columbia University’s acting president Claire Shipman speaks during Columbia University commencement ceremony on Columbia’s main campus, in Manhattan, on Wednesday, May 21, 2025 in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Pool)

Students react as Columbia University’s acting president Claire Shipman speaks during Columbia University commencement ceremony on Columbia’s main campus, in Manhattan, on Wednesday, May 21, 2025 in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Pool)

“It’s almost an unfathomable number and feels like an uphill battle,” said Franziska Trautmann, cofounder of the glass recycling company Glass Half Full. “But the team is noticing a difference.”Partnering with the city and other groups, Glass Half Full collected more than 33,000 pounds (15,000 kilograms) of glass from nearly two dozen bars as part of a “Bar Wars” contest and at recycling stations along parade routes, Trautmann said.

Anna Nguyen, a spokesperson for the city’s Office of Resilience & Sustainability, said the city is working with community groups to engage and incentivize recycling, with groups offering rewards for anyone who turns in bags of beads, cans or bottles and an artist building a mosaic from them.This year, the city had earmarked $50,000 to support Mardi Gras recycling for the first time and has increased that budget by fivefold for next year’s season, Nguyen said. Convention planners and groups looking for cities to host events are increasingly prioritizing sustainability, she added.But it’s also part of a cultural shift toward greater sustainability among social clubs and parade-goers during Mardi Gras, according to Kevin Ferguson, vice president of external affairs for New Orleans & Company, a nonprofit dedicated to boosting the city’s tourism: “What we’re building is more of a movement than an individual project.”

A positive sign, he says, is that “throws” — thethat float riders toss to spectators — are evolving to feature more items that people want and are likely to keep.

“That’s just not happening with beads anymore. No one’s picking that up off the ground,” Ferguson said. “I think you’re seeing riders are buying less of that and more of other things.”

Associated Press reporter Stephen Smith contributed to this report.Kayla Patterson, her husband and their five children huddled in a tub in their basement in London, the county seat, as the tornado raged around them.

“You could literally hear just things ripping in the distance, glass shattering everywhere, just roaring like a freight train,” she recalled Saturday. “It was terrible.”The family eventually emerged to the sounds of sirens and panicked neighbors. While the family’s own home was spared, others right behind it were demolished, Patterson said as the sound of power tools buzzed in the background. The neighborhood was dotted with piles of lumber, metal sheeting, insulation and stray belongings — a suitcase, a sofa, some six-packs of paper towels.

This aerial photo provided by London, KY Mayor Randall Weddle shows damage from severe weather in London, Ky., on Saturday, May 17, 2025. (City of London, Ky. via AP)This aerial photo provided by London, KY Mayor Randall Weddle shows damage from severe weather in London, Ky., on Saturday, May 17, 2025. (City of London, Ky. via AP)