Your Guide to Green Partying

We all love a good party. But as the world wants more and more to be a kinder friend to the environment, it is hard to not feel guilty at a party. Why? The amount of waste that is produced at each and every little gathering.

But all hope is not lost, there are a few things that we all can do to ensure that partying has a place in the new green world that we are striving towards. Here are the things that you can do as a host of a party.

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1. The Invitations:

To start us off, just use less paper by sending out invites to your events via the internet. Email, Facebook, you name it. This also makes the RSVPing process a whole lot easier.

2. The Trash:

As silly as it sounds, just be sure to have a decent rubbish system in place. It will not only make a greener party but it will also make the clean up that much easier.

You must have the two types of bins available, general rubbish and recyclable, and you have to have big enough bins for your party. My little rule is having one standard 75L trash can of each type for every 10 guests. This is just to ensure that you don’t have overflowing trash cans.

In addition, you could add a third food scraps bin that can be added to a compost pile.

The one thing you have to be sure of - no matter how many bins you have - is that they are labelled clearly for your guests so they can use them correctly.

Another bonus for having recycling bins available is making a little bit of cash. If you want, you can sort those bottles and cans the next morning and take eligible ones to a Container Refund Point and receive the monetary refund.

Here's a link that can help you find a Container Refund Point near you:

https://www.containersforchange.com.au/qld/where-can-i-return

3. The Decorations and Costumes:

The decorations of a party are where most of the waste can come from.

For a simple house party, it's very simple, just go reusable. Here are a few suggestions that are easy to put up and then store: paper lanterns, fabric buntings and fairy lights.

Now for the troublesome circumstance: themed parties. Themed parties are a doozy because 9 times out of 10 you will want to have elaborate decorations that can never be used again. Your best bet to reduce waste is again go with reusable decorations. You can use theme adjacent decorations that could be used for other themes as well and then ham up the costume, music and food to really sell the theme you are going for.

Costumes have become a problematic subject of late. One of the easiest and actually fun sustainable ways to make a costume is thrifting. Make a day of it, take a couple of friends and find your costumes together. You will be saving some garments from landfill and if the clothes are clean enough, you could always donate it back again.

4. The Food:

Providing food at a party is really tricky full stop, let alone trying to make it eco-friendly on top of that. The type of party really dictates how you provide food.

A little gathering of fewer than ten people? Easy, just go for a potluck. Your guests bringing some food that they make at home means food brought in dishes, not packaging.

Throwing what is so eloquently called a 'piss up' among the Australian youth? You don't really have to provide anything other than snacks. When shopping for snacks, look for snacks that have sustainable or compostable packaging.

Throwing a special event like a birthday party? Ah, now this where the trouble sets in.

If you are providing food at your party, there are a couple of things that you have to think about.

First of all the type of food that you are providing, you want food that keeps well as leftovers. This prevents you from having to throw food out.

Finger food is a great way to go. It not only uses fewer utensils and crockery, but guests will eat less - meaning you don’t have to make as much food.

5. The Crockery and Weapons:

Although paper plates and napkins have become an easy option, you have to be wary of these. These paper utensils aren't actually that recyclable. Not to go into too much detail but once they get greasy from food, they can't go through the recycling process to make other recycled paper materials. Some alternatives are compostable paper plates and some wooden utensils.

You could always use your usual dinnerware or you can invest in some reusable plastic dinnerware that can be used among your group of friends for every event.

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Being waster free these days is tricky but just putting in the little effort will really make all the difference in the world.