Glitter is a microplastic (plastic less than five millimetres in length), which causes harm to marine life that mistake it for food. As a result, humans can ingest the microplastics via seafood and even tap water. Balloons also cause major problems, with the attached strings strangling birds, while other animals and sea life often mistake the shape of a burst balloon for jellyfish.

In the festival's workshop, production manager Liz Carter is helping many of the parade floats become glitter-free, by encouraging the use of fluorescent lights, LEDs and lanterns. They are also recycling and re-using props and floats from previous festivals.

"There are cleverer ways of achieving something that sparkles and shines without the glitter," Ms Carter said. "I do secretly quite like glitter, but you have to think about the environment. Every festival has a carbon footprint and everyone has to think about that."

And while Mardi Gras' carbon footprint might be shod in a towering high heel and located at the end of a drag queen's leg, the festival is joining an international movement against glitter and plastics at major events.

Britain is leading the way, with 61 music festivals committing to ban single-use plastics, including glitter, by 2021, while the supermarket chain Waitrose is banning glitter in its own-brand products by next year. Even the Queen has jumped on board, banning straws and bottles from the royal estates.

Other festivals in Australia, such as the Sydney Festival, Splendour in the Grass and the Falls Festival, discourage the use of single-use plastics, but none have gone so far as to ban them altogether.

Several local councils in Australia, including Ryde Council, have banned balloons, and it's also illegal in NSW to release more than 20 gas-inflated balloons at one time.

A key researcher at the University of Sydney's Sydney Environment Institute, associate professor Ruth Barcan​, hopes we're "at a tipping point around plastics and action".

"If an organisation like Mardi Gras can say that - an event like that, which is almost the epitome of the synthetic and plastic, if they can do it, that is an extraordinarily potent cultural symbol," Dr Barcan said.

For those committed to glitter, there are environmentally friendly glitter options, such as those made from the cellulose of eucalyptus trees.

"I'm hoping now we'll set the mark high and take a leadership role in [going carbon neutral] and promote other it at other festivals," Ms Casu said. "Because it does make such a difference and the amount of waste we use at festivals, it's got to stop."