So, you’ve made it to the end of the year. Congratulations! It’s finally time to wind down a little, drink and relax with friends, and generally just enjoy the end of another hopefully fruitful year. However, the Earth also deserves some downtime, don’t you think? With the amount of trash thrown around without any care, the Earth has been working double time to adjust to that.
It goes without saying that you should always think about helping the Earth a little even during the holiday seasons. That goes for gift wrappers, gifts, and just generally all things related to the season. That also means your parties should be friendly not just to people, but to the environment as well. Here are a few tips to help you give back to the world on Christmas and even beyond.
Party-hardy? Take These Cities for Inspiration
If you want to view a sustainable model for partying while keeping your environment-friendly tone in check, look no more than these few cities. Frankfurt, Copenhagen, Rotterdam, and Madrid are only a few of the cities in Europe where being friendly means more than just buying a few solar panels for sale.
It’s easy to get to these cities by booking early, or if you want, you can just do an online visitation or research on their eco-friendly efforts. It’s safer than being physically there under the circumstances.
Shop for Eco-friendly Disposables
Since you’ll be staying at home, chances are that you’ll be hosting your parties here, or be invited to ones nearby. If you oversee buying disposable food ware for the holiday festivities, remember to keep to eco-friendly choices. There are already alternatives to plastic cups and paper plates.
There are plant-based paper plates or starch-based cups already available at markets. These break down easier than plastic, and they don’t release toxic chemicals if they indeed break down. That’s another eco-friendly choice off your list right there.
Digital Invitations Are the Vogue
Of course, it also means you’ll have to cut back on using all that paper to send invitations to partygoers. Paper is basically taken from trees, and they also go to waste right after being used. It’s not so economical and not friendly to the environment to use so much paper for a short event.
You can choose to go digital, just like how everyone chooses to invite or talk to each other these days. Send out invitations or RSVPs through email or digital invitations. You can do this through sending emails or going through social media, if you’re a soc med savant.
Buy Your Food from Local Stores
This one’s a little complicated to connect to eco-friendly processes but hear us out. When you buy food from the market, that is delivered in trucks, and the farther away the source, the more fossil fuel is burned when meat or produce is brought from farm to market.
Consider buying fresh meat and produce from your local market by looking at where it comes from. The more local it is, the more trucks aren’t needed to bring it in. When they are, it’s just a short distance, and they don’t burn as much fossil fuel as when they are hauled from another town or city.
Keep Waste to a Minimum
If you can, you should keep energy and item waste as little as possible. Ask your guests to do their part by bringing eco-friendly stuff to the party like reusable paper plates and cups or have them bring over LED lights and hard-to-recycle items like used batteries. You can spread a little holiday cheer by offering to dispose of those for them.
It’s hard to keep the environment as clean as possible without the cooperation of everyone. Doing your small part, however small, will help the environment have at least a fighting chance. Remember the Earth when you’re throwing your holiday parties.