By: Kathryn Marchesiello
Summer is officially here and with that comes dinner parties, barbecues and many days spent in the sun with family and friends. Whether it is your kids birthday, the 4th of July celebration or a dinner party with neighbors, think about what you can do to go a little greener. Any outdoor party alone can produce so much waste without us even thinking about it. From plastic tableware to decorations to food waste, and so on. It is important to stay eco-conscious and ask yourself what you can do to go greener?
Follow these easy, and helpful tips to be more eco-friendly and reduce your carbon footprint:
Use E-invites: Make sure the invitations are electronic invites. This way you are going paperless and reducing waste at an easy convenience. Simply go on Facebook and create an event or go to a website such as greenvelope.com to design your own cute paperless invitations. Note on the invitation that the event is “green” so guests can be mindful and practice ways to be eco-friendly beforehand.
Lighting: Enjoy the beautiful summer weather and sit outside and graciously use the natural sunlight. This way you do not have to waste energy on lights inside. Just think of how much energy and money you are saving from just hanging out in your own backyard. At dusk and in the evening, use eco-friendly light bulbs or candles. They create a beautiful and festive feel.
Use green conscious decorations: Buy products from which you can get multiple uses out of it. Try staying away from cheap party store decorations that consist of plastic and paper products. Instead look at places such as the farmers market where flowers are sold or the garden in your yard where you can decorate using pretty plants and flowers and natural items.
Reusable Silverware: Avoid using silverware that is made out of plastic. Use that which is stainless steel or reusable. This will easily save you time, money and plastics that will end up in a landfill. Also, use glasses that can already be found around the house, it does not matter if they do not all match since this is an eco-friendly party and it is more important to be green.
Use Non-Packaged Food: Go to the local farmer’s market. This way you can buy food that is fresh and has no plastic packaging. Buy just the amount of food you think you will need and try not to overcook, this way less food is wasted.
Leftovers: If there are large amounts of leftovers, share with your friends and party guests. Send it home with others so they have a meal in which they do not have to cook for and can save energy. This also frees up shelf room in your fridge. This can be sent home in a glass container or stainless steel containers which are reusable.
Clean-up and Recycling: At the end of the meal, have two bins ready for use. One for composting and one for recycling. Guests can put scraps of food they do not want in the composting bin and recyclables in the other. Having these two bins will hopefully inspire others to take the same initiative at their next get-together.
For more go greener dinner party ideas and helpful tips on where to shop go to https://www.treehugger.com/htgg/how-to-go-green-dinner-parties.html