The holidays are a great time to entertain friends and family at home. There’s nothing like fancy cocktails, extra special treats, and beautiful decorations in your own digs to celebrate the season. But excess bounty often creates an unprecedented amount of waste from wrappings, cans, bottles, paper products, and leftover food, and this adds up to a not so green time of year for our home planet.
According to Verlasso.com, between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, Americans discard 25% more garbage than any other time of year, which translates to about 6 million additional tons of trash during the holidays. Fortunately, there are many actions hosts can take to entertain with low or zero impact to the planet. These actions also create a more sustainable mindset – one that brings peace and simplicity into our households and helps us remember what’s really important.
For inspiration, join us for a “Party for the Planet” workshop at Rodgers Ranch on October 24 and learn some green entertaining tips while enjoying sustainable cocktails and appetizers. Register HERE
In the meantime, entertain these eco ideas before planning your next bash:
1) Go Local. Food is usually the “main event” at any party and you’ll want to consider sourcing your menu items as locally as possible. Year-round farmers’ markets and co-ops are the perfect places to pick up local ingredients and seasonal produce as well as fresh ideas.
2) Avoid Single-Use Items. In the interest of convenience, hosts often don’t bother recycling during a party and will “just this once” collect garbage bags full of single serve bottles and cans mixed in with paper plates and napkins, plastic utensils, and food scraps. These bloated bags go directly to the trash bin after the party is over and on to landfill thereafter. Plastic water bottles are one of the worst offenders and take a mind-boggling 450 years to decompose.
3) Decorate environmentally. Going green doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice special decorations at holiday time.
Even if you commit to just one or two changes in your entertaining, it’ll make a difference. We’re all creatures of habit, but choosing a more sustainable route can be inspirational to both you and your guests, and the earth will thank you. For more savvy sustainable suggestions for holidays throughout the year, go to the Sustainable Baby Steps website.
More on eco-entertaining:
https://mamaeco.com/zero-waste-entertaining/
https://www.verlasso.com/verlasso-blog/2018/12/5/10-eco-friendly-id...
Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash
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