How to Pull Off a Low-Waste Party Holiday Dinner
_____
It pays to entertain sustainably.
_____
Here’s why:
– There’s nothing more cringe-worthy than an overflowing trashcan full of disposable plates + silverware following a party, and
– Heaps of uneaten, discarded food are wasteful, depressing. Finally,
– Mounds of wine + beer bottles headed for the landfill instead of the recycling center? Ouch. Painful.
I understand the desire to sacrifice sustainability for convenience; indeed, entertaining a crowd is stressful. Properly preparing for + executing all the duties of a hostess takes weeks of advance preparation.
Entertaining can be expensive, too, especially if the event is a holiday meal.
It is no surprise, then, that hosts slash their workloads by serving food on disposable plates. And it’s perfectly understandable that hosts – citing time + budget constraints – purchase environmentally-damaging cleaning products, inorganic produce + inexpensive meat.
Still, it’s possible to host affordably and sustainably. Here’s how to to pull off a zero waste dinner during the holidays and always.
_____
The Low-Waste Party Checklist is a free 2-page document that outlines absolutely everything hosts + hostesses need to entertain sustainably. Grab the free PDF here:
_____
Tip 1: Set the table
_____
When it comes to setting the table, there are some (crucial) decisions to be made. That’s because hosts + hostesses must choose between the fancy stuff, the flimsy stuff and the in-between stuff.
_____
The Fancy Stuff
The fancy stuff is fine china, silver + cloth napkins. It’s the beautiful stuff, too, because of the elegance and grace it adds to any dinner table.
The fancy stuff is sustainable. Studies have shown that your china – if used 150 times – will pay off the carbon debt it created when made.
The problem with the fancy stuff, however, is this: For the host, its usage is labor-intensive. Those elegant napkins will inevitably get stained: as such, you will be soaking, washing, line drying + ironing those squares long after the party has ended. And thanks to its delicacy, china should always be washed by hand. Finally, there’s the silver it should be hand-washed and polished regularly.
Utilizing the fancy stuff means there’s a tradeoff to be had: while your dinner table may resemble one from the pages of Better Homes & Gardens, someone (read: you) will inevitably be chained to the kitchen, hunching over the sink, hand-washing all those appetizer, main meal + dinner plates.
Cloth napkins, however, are indeed the most sustainable option in terms of trash production. Thanks to food remnants within their fibers, traditional, paper napkins cannot be recycled. So, because the goal of a sustainable host is to create as close to zero trash as possible, cloth napkins are always preferred to their paper counterparts.
Consider purchasing an inexpensive set in a neutral color, like these. Or consider napkins in darker hues like these to ensure they can be reused again and again: darker colors hide stains much better than the white or off-white varieties.
_____
The Flimsy Stuff
Disposable tableware – both paper + plastic – is incredibly convenient. But what’s convenient for party hosts ultimately becomes incredibly inconvenient for the environment: Even if you purchase the recyclable kind and diligently scrape off any food remnants before recycling, disposable always equals unsustainable.
From an aesthetic standpoint, disposable plates and plastic silverware scream ‘backyard barbecue’ instead of dinner party. Forks snap. Knives never cut. Plastic plates are ridiculously slippery.
Making enough paper for a single paper plate requires a whopping 8 gallons of water and is responsible for nearly 4 grams of carbon emissions.
That’s why eco-friendly hosts shy away from anything disposable, regardless of the convenience factor.
If you must use disposable, make sure it’s biodegradable. (Bamboo products are on the market these days, for instance.) Do so with caution and know that biodegradable options still aren’t sustainable.
_____
The In-Between Stuff
When it comes to choosing dishes, there is a third option: your everyday dinner plates and silverware, paired with a cloth napkin. The dishes and silverware are sturdy and dishwasher safe. They’re reusable and are therefore eco-friendly.
If you don’t own enough of any one thing to satisfy the amount of guests you’ve invited, borrow what you need from a friend or rent from a party supply store. Or purchase from a thrift store which often has incredible deals on attractive but unwanted dinnerware.
Why shouldn’t you buy new stuff? Buying new is the last resort, and here’s why: New things come with a lot of excess packaging like cardboard boxes, plastic bags, and that pesky, non-recyclable styrofoam.
_____
My recommendations:
When I entertain, I use my everyday dishes, my everyday silverware, cloth napkins + my middle-of-the-road stemware. Here’s why:
– The dishes and silverware are dishwasher-safe.
– Cloth napkins are the sustainable choice.
– The stemware is elegant enough that it doesn’t feel as though I am cutting corners but not too nice that I worry about it breaking. Also, I put it in the dishwasher on the gentle setting.
Tip 2: Decorate mindfully
_____
Flowers and Plants
Every party needs flowers, or so you’ve been told.
But decorating with flowers can be a highly unsustainable practice because the flower industry is a major contributor to carbon emissions. 80-percent of roses sold in America, for example, are grown in South America. These blooms therefore travel thousands of miles in temperature-controlled trucks + are stored overnight in oversized refrigerators.
If you choose to adorn your home with cut blooms, buy ones grown locally and and in season. Overflow your vases with foliage from your yard or around your neighborhood; this practice is not only eco-friendly but also frugal.
Consider decorating with potted plants or bulbs instead, which can be enjoyed much longer than their cut counterparts.
Candles
Candles provide an attractive alternative to electricity. Thanks to their soft illumination, candles add instant ambiance.
Here’s the problem. Most candles on the market are made with paraffin, a by-product of crude oil. These candles produce large amounts of toxic chemicals (toluene + benzene, to name a few) when burned, and studies have found alarming air pollution in homes that regularly burn paraffin-based candles.
From a sustainability standpoint, paraffin candles aren’t biodegradable. Worse, they’re made from a non-renewable source that is environmentally devastating to extract.
Palm and soy candles aren’t much better. While candles made from palm oil contribute to environmental damage in the form of plantation expansion, soy plantations similarly displace forests in South America.
If, like me, you’re reluctant to ditch candles altogether, the solution may be eco-candles. Consider supporting candle companies that responsibly source soy such as Nellie Tier or Maison Balzac.
Make sure to recycle any glass or aluminum packaged with the candle. Scrape and melt out the remaining wax then microwave for 20 seconds and wipe out any that remains. Because soy is biodegradable, you can compost soy wax.
If the price tags on eco-candles are enough to give you heart palpitations, consider making your own beeswax candles. It’s easy + fun, I promise!
_____
Other thoughts
– Balloons + streamers are absolute no-nos.
– Consider using fresh produce as your table centerpiece. Adorn the table with a bowl of fruit – cherries, grapes or clementines – which looks lovely and doubles as dessert. Or consider placing a parade of baby squash directly down the length of your table runner.
_____
The Low-Waste Party Checklist is a free 2-page document that outlines absolutely everything hosts + hostesses need to entertain sustainably. Grab the free PDF here:
_____
Tip 3: Utilize Compost Bins
_____
The ultimate goal of any sustainable host is to avoid creating trash at every turn. The most earth-friendly practice you can implement, therefore, is to create and offer four clearly marked compost bins to your guests.
Dress them up and make them look pretty. Decorate them. Create attractive signs. Be sure to clearly communicate how to use them to your guests.
Place them on appropriate containers (a dinner party of 18 will require much larger bins than a party of 6, for example), then line them with newspaper, which is also compostable.
Bin One: Instruct guests to place compostable food scraps such as fruits, vegetables and grains within. Ideally, this bin will be the most full.
Bin Two: Label this bin for non-compostable food scraps, including meat, fish and dairy.
Items from this bin cannot be composted in a backyard composting bin, so its fate is either the trash or the kitchen disposal, if you have one. Neither option is preferred: while food waste in landfills contributes to carbon emissions as it decomposes, food down the disposal in your kitchen sink stresses sewage treatment plants and potentially pollutes waterways.
Bin Three: This is the recycling bin for anything that can be recycled. Glass, aluminum, plastic and paper that does not have food remnants on it (this is why you cannot recycle paper napkins).
Remember that, although recycling is certainly preferable to throwing an item in the trash, recycling isn’t the answer. Best practice includes not producing waste in the first place.
Bin Four: This is a clearly marked trash can for anything that cannot be recycled or composted. Ideally, there this bin is almost empty at the end of the evening, because it means almost nothing is headed to the local landfill.
Tip 4: Get Smart in the Kitchen
Save energy when cooking with these tricks.
_____
Utilize the smaller appliances first
Cooking in the microwave is not only possible; sometimes, it’s preferable. Indeed, the microwave reduces cooking energy by as much as 80-percent, according to an Energy Star study.
Don’t forget about the toaster oven, either: If you’re cooking something small, it is sensible to use the smaller oven.
Pressure cookers like this one save energy + reduce cooking time by about 70-percent. Crockpots, too, are excellent for slow cooking certain items or reheating items just before serving dinner.
Be oven savvy
Thanks to newer ovens that come to temperature rapidly, preheating is a prehistoric practice. Put dishes to be roasted or braised in the oven right away. Just turn the oven off five or ten minutes early and let the dishes finish cooking in the oven’s residual eat.
Let your oven perform double-duties wherever possible: Consider cooking two things at once. After preparing your protein, place a vegetable in the same pan around the periphery. Doing this saves time – you’re preparing two dishes at once! It also saves energy – you’re only heating the oven once! And it saves water – there’s only one pan to clean instead of two!
Stovetop smarts
Use a properly sized pot for each of the stove burners. On an electric stove, for instance, using a 6-inch pot on an 8-inch burner wastes 40-percent of the burner’s heat.
Use the correct lids atop your pots. Well-fitting lids keep heat inside and therefore reduce overall cooking time.
Fill the dishwasher
Save yourself from scrubbing + scouring, and save water in the process: Consider serving your food in the same pan you prepared it. Use the pots and pans you already own or, if you are in the market for some new cookware, consider varieties that are as functional as they are beautiful. I like Dansk Kobenstyle casseroles, Le Crueset + Staub cocottes, to name a few.
If your dishwasher is more than 10 or 15 years old, consider upgrading to a newer Energy-Star model: Doing so can cut your water use in half.
Pre-rinse mindfully: Place dishes that aren’t woefully soiled straight in the dishwasher. Finally, utilize a green dishwasher detergent that won’t pollute waterways. Look for brands that are phosphate-free.
Stay in-the-know!
Sign up for monthly minimalist inspiration.
