Entertaining with less food waste
Gathering with friends and family during the holiday season is something many of us look forward to all year long, a chance to catch our breath and celebrate together.
This step-by-step guide is intended for hosts of any size gathering. It focuses on food waste because the USDA estimates that 30-40% of our food supply goes to waste every year and much of that is due to holiday celebrations. A little planning can help make sure your season is both delicious and less wasteful.
Because getting together at the holidays isn’t all about food (though we love food!), we’re also sharing tips to minimize other entertaining-related waste here, from recycling prep to cleaning up sustainably.
By the way, we’ll link to some brands in this guide. We’ve made picks based on our own research and aren’t being compensated for any business we send their way. We’re just trying to help you find waste-less solutions easily.
Before
Know how many guests you expect. Sending an evite can be an easy way to keep count of your RSVPs—especially helpful during the busy holiday season when people often have overlapping events.
Calculate how much food you’ll need. The Guestimator from the Natural Resources Defense Council’s savethefood.com is an interactive dinner party food calculator. They have other handy tools, too: the meal prep guide can help you stay on track year round and the storage guide helps you maximize food lifespan.
Make a shopping list and stick to it. Remember that you’ll likely have leftovers, so you may not need to buy as much as usual for your meals after the event. Plan ahead for leftover meals, too, and get ingredients to use for hashes, sandwiches, or even omelets.
Decide on plates and glasses. Reusable options are the most sustainable, so if your party size allows for it, consider using your regular dishes and glasses. Party rental services are an option for reusables, too. Paper products that aren’t coated with plastic (wax is okay) can go in curbside composting bins in many areas. If you have a home composting pile, look for disposables made from bamboo, bagasse, or palm tree leaves. Disposables made with vegetable starch need to go to industrial composting facilities, so they’re best in areas with a facility nearby.
Gather containers so you can offer them to your guests. This can be a great way to repurpose non-recyclable takeout containers. Alternatively, consider asking your guests to bring their own containers.
Set up waste stations. Label bins for recyclables like beverage bottles, food, and garbage, so your guests can put everything where it belongs. Alternatively, ask them to put everything in one spot so you can sort it out later. Remember that multi-layer plastic snack packaging is recyclable through Ridwell!
During
Your only job now is to enjoy your gathering!
We’ll offer this waste-less tip: skip gag gift exchanges. While it can be fun to play the game where everyone brings a silly gift, how much use do gag gifts really get? If you want a giving element to your gathering, consider a service like Elfster, where people can opt in to surprise each other with things they want.
After
Clean up with planet-friendly products. It’s become easier in recent years to find sustainable cleaners without plastic packaging. Lots of us at Ridwell use products from Blueland. We appreciate that Grove Co. offers a holiday collection keeps the cheer levels high even while doing dishes. We love Papaya reusable “paper” towels for wiping up in every room.
Enjoy your leftovers. Chances are, you’ll be grateful for a few easy meals. One of the most unique ideas we’ve heard is grilled cheese with cranberry sauce—try it!
Freeze the extras. If you have more leftovers than you’ll consume in a few days, freeze what you can for later. Some reusable silicone bags, like the colorful ones from Stasher, are freezer safe.
Donate packaged food to your local food bank. It’s normal to over-prepare for a gathering by stocking up on packaged finger foods. If you don’t have space to keep them or know you won’t eat them, food banks are a convenient option.
And you’ve done it! Wasting less is well worth a little preparation if that’s what it takes to keep food, plastic plates and glasses, and more out of the landfill.
