Tips for Eco Friendly Party Plan

Looking to have a zero waste party? Check out these 5 tips to help you plan an eco-friendly and fun celebration!

Introduction

Isn’t it nice if you don’t need to deal with a lot of rubbish and wasted food after you have had fun? Holidays, birthdays, weddings, and a party for other occasions can be stressful without a good plan. Don’t forget to include eco-friendliness and sustainability in your plan while thinking about how to entertain your guests.

Here are 5 tips to help you plan an eco-friendly and fun celebration!

Plan Ahead

Planning ahead is one of the best things you can do for your event. Things you may want to consider are:

Which type of event it will be? There are many types of party, surprise, dinner, garden, dance, costume, pool, showers, etc.
How many guests are coming? This will influence where to host the party.
What sort of items they might bring?
How much food will be served?
Whether or not alcohol will be present?

Once you've planned for these needs and more, it's time to get started.

Send out digital invitations

Digital invitations are a great way to reduce paper use and create a beautiful design easily. Some services like rsvpify and EventCreate offer free event website and RSVP tracking. You can even set up your own email list or use Facebook event pages as well.

Also, ask your guest not to bring cards and presents. If your guests really want to give a present, prepare a wish list for them.

Decorations

There are many ways to create decorations that are both environmentally friendly and easy on the eyes. Balloons, paper streamers, confetti, tissue paper flowers, and other craft materials can all be easily made with recycled and recyclable/compostable materials.

You can also upcycle items you have such as glass jars and cardboard. And remember to use natural decorations of flowers, plants, and fruits as well.

Food & Drink

Food and drinks are integral aspects of any good party, but they can also be your downfall when it comes to creating a sustainable event. Even though there are many pre-cooked and ready-to-eat packed food options available, your guests will appreciate freshly made dishes. So, this is where you want to put your effort.

Get fresh vegetables in season and make simple dishes such as salads, vegetable sticks with a dip, or roasted vegetables. Serve drinks in jars and reusable cups. Avoid bottled water and soft drinks.

There are some great recipes found on:

Sustainable Cooks - https://www.sustainablecooks.com/

WWF Healthy and Sustainable Recipes - https://www.wwf.org.uk/recipes

We encourage minimizing food waste, but if you did have food scraps and leftovers that cannot be kept, compost them as much as you can. If you didn’t have composting space, dispose of it in an organic waste collection bin.

Clean Up

Disposable food-ware contaminated with food is not recyclable. They may be made of compostable material, but we suggest using reusables as much as possible. Reusable materials are cheaper in the long run and kinder to the environment. Ask your guests to help wash or bring their own plates and cutlery. To avoid a big cleaning after the party, you can do miner tasks such as emptying plates and collecting empty bottles.

You can offer leftover food and decorations to your guests to take home.

When you dispose of some items, make sure to sort out recyclable and compostable materials.

Conclusion

By hosting a party in a sustainable and eco-friendly way, you can influence others in your community to make positive changes. Sharing good food and spending time with people you like is one of the most enjoyable events. But we should be conscious about the impact of our activities at the same time. There is no such “perfect” instruction, and you don’t need to do it perfectly. Just imagine this, 50 plastic disposable party items from 124 million households (USA as an example), twice a year, will be 12 billion items in landfills.

Source

Number of households in the U.S - https://www.statista.com/statistics/183635/number-of-households-in-the-us/

Tons of food lost or wasted - https://www.theworldcounts.com/challenges/people-and-poverty/hunger-and-obesity/food-waste-statistics