Virginia Sole-Smith
DCL
You'll excuse me if this post is a little spacey/dehydrated/suspiciously craving bacon — we threw a big Housewarmthday Party this weekend (that's housewarming + my husband's and my birthdays) and I'm still, ahem, recovering.
But I'm rallying to share five easy things we did to reduce our party's carbon footprint. Because this is no simple task when you're hosting 50 people over the course of many hours. In the past I've been all too tempted to cut corners when we have a big crowd and use disposable paper plates and plastic cups, not worrying overly much if many of the beer bottles fail to make it to the recycling bin. I still think you can't worry too much (I can't promise that every beer bottle made it to the recycling bin, and I'm not about to scavenge through my trash to be sure) — but I recently chatted with the fabulous Danielle Venokur, a sustainable event designer and founder of New York-based dvGreen, who had some great tips for simple ways to green things up, whether you're planning a low-key backyard BBQ or epic party experience.
1. Replace plastic cups with glass Ball Jars.
Here's our back porch bar set-up at the start of this weekend's festivities. We served wine, beer (chilling in galvanized tubs of ice below this table), almost every kind of liquor, mojitos, gin-spiked lemonade, and sangria. (Oh sure, and soda too. I think.) But instead of stacking up hundreds of plastic cups, I set out two dozen 12-ounce and one dozen 8-ounce mason jars (with another dozen on hand for back-up), which I scored for around $10 per dozen at the grocery store. Yes, the upfront cost is more than plastic, but you can get away with less, because they feel substantial enough that guests will refill them, instead of ditching one plastic cup to grab a clean one. And they pay for themselves in about five minutes when you realize that they're sturdy enough to withstand some pretty hard partying (we didn't have a single breakage) and can be reused for all sorts of things. Think: Refrigerating leftovers, storing dry goods, mixing salad dressing, organizing pens on my desk, holding flowers and candles... You get the picture. Bonus: They're also far more fetching than plastic cups, so you'll get compliments for being clever.
2. Make recycling easy.
Speaking of the bar: It's probably your biggest (at least by weight) source of party trash, between empty beer bottles, beer cans, and wine bottles. If you leave party clean-up until you're staggering around with trash bags at 3 AM, odds are good that most of that won't make it to the recycling bin. We solved that problem by leaving two of our big green recycling bins out by the back porch. Most guests figured the system out pretty quickly and disposed of their empties accordingly. And even when it came time to face the backyard mess the next morning, clean-up went fast because we had a lot of lovely helpers and bins right there to make it easy for them.
3. Use vintage handkerchiefs as cocktail napkins.
Danielle says switching from paper to fabric napkins is one of her favorite ways to green up a party. "Suddenly everything will feel a whole lot more elegant, whether you're eating takeout or hosting a specially prepared meal, and you'll forego a lot of waste over time," she notes. Since our house is old and I like vintage-y things, I scored several lots of vintage handkerchiefs on eBay (which is swimming with them, though you'd get even more eco points if you sourced them locally instead of shipping them from afar. I tried to avoid sellers based overseas for that reason). Average cost: 85 cents per hankie. Which means I'm not going to stress if a few end up with red wine stains or fray in the dryer. But I am very psyched to have a drawer-full of them ready to use for all manner of future napkin-needing events, craft projects, and other activities. Danielle even suggests sticking a cotton hand towel or hankie in your pocket or purse, to use in place of paper towels in public restrooms and curb the paper napkin fetish at coffee shops. "Cute designs recommended!" she says. "They do it in Japan, so why not here?"
4. Choose reusable plastic cutlery.
Since I chose to invest in the mason jars and handkerchiefs for this party, I knew I had to keep my other party supply costs down. Which meant no scouting lots of silver cutlery at antique stores, as I originally contemplated. (Though you totally could get several mismatched sets and keep them on hand for parties only. I'm just saying.) Instead, I opted for a bunch of Preserve On The Go Cutlery ($5.50 for 8 sets, preserveproducts.com). It's reusable, recyclable, made from BPA-free recycled plastic, and dishwasher-safe. My only complaints are the limited range of colors (that "midnight blue" is just... odd) and the fact that your guests will think they are the usual throw-away kind of plastic cutlery, so you'll have to do some trash fishing to keep them all, or be the annoying sort of hostess who keeps telling people to stop throwing your stuff out. (Sorry, friends.)5. Compost your plates.That pesky budget issue also kept me from buying enough secondhand dinner plates to feed 50 people, though I do list that among my future ambitions. This time, I settled on using a mix of Preserve On the Go plates that we already owned and a few packs of compostable paper plates from my local grocery store. And it was immensely satisfying to be able to just pitch plates into the compost bin at the end of the night. (Okay, yes, after checking that the food remnants on them were compostable and yes, I'll probably have to go back and cut them up to help speed up the breaking down process sooner or later.) My sister-in-law also brought Sun Chips in their new compostable bags, which made for further easy and green clean-up.
