18 Dec 2021

Going eco-friendly feels great, especially if you can minimize waste in your day-to-day life. However, parties are a different story, and it is easy to end up dealing with far too much mess that you have no easy way of cleaning up. If you are not careful, you can end up being very eco-unfriendly at parties.

Big Pool, Maryland can easily be reached by our experienced delivery personnel. In fact, we can dispatch a member of our team with a rental dumpster to Big Pool, MD as soon as today, if necessary for your project.

When you are hosting your own party, you will want to keep that eco-friendly feeling going – but how do you get started? Here are some tips to help you get to work on your own eco-friendly get-together, as well as some things you might not have considered.

Encourage Recycling

Always try to push your guests to recycle. Have recycling bins clearly marked and ensure that there is always an easy way for aluminum cans or other recyclable containers to get thrown away properly. You do not want people tossing things into the wrong bin, so do your best to nudge them on.

Even if your guests are not eco-friendly themselves, most of them will understand that recycling is always a good thing. If you can make it clear that recycling is a core focus of most of what they are using, then they will be likely to recycle it, but there needs to be bins for them to actually use.

You do not have to go overboard and force everybody to acknowledge that you are eco-friendly, but making sure that your guests are gently pushed into doing the right thing can be important. It might even make some of them more aware of what can and can’t be recycled, like certain plastic drinks bottles.

Once you have got all the recycling, consider putting it in a small dumpster, like one of ours. This makes it very easy to haul a lot of recyclable materials away to be processed without needing to drive them there yourself – saving on fuel as well as your own time.

Eat Organic

While organic food might not always taste better (or different) from its regular counterpart, it is always nicer to eat things from farmer’s markets or local stores. Pre-packaged foods from major chains are not always bad, but they are unlikely to be made in an eco-friendly way.

If you can grow your own food somehow, that is even better. Even if you only have a small garden, contributing a few vegetables to the food can help you save money and avoid having to buy food kept in non-recyclable packaging. The more organic meals you can make, the better.

Organic food is often also quite healthy, which can be a great alternative to buying processed meals that might be loaded with unnecessary things. As long as you can still make something nice, then your guests are going to enjoy their time there, so do not stress too much about what you are making them.

Be Energy Efficient

While you can’t really set up solar panels just for one party, there is nothing wrong with switching to energy-efficient lights or using solar-powered outdoor lighting. Not only can these be incredibly useful for saving on energy bills, but they also do not use as much regular power.

Since almost all power comes from fossil fuels in most countries, using less leads to lower overall pollution. Sure, one party might not do much damage in terms of CO2 emissions, but every little bit helps when you are concerned about the environment.

It is also a good idea to consider when you are actually going to turn on power-hungry appliances. Watching a movie? Do not stream it from a full-sized computer if you can help it. Turning on some celebratory displays? Be sure to turn them off again once the novelty has worn off on most people.

Avoid Disposables

Anything disposable can be bad since they are rarely going to biodegrade. While there are great alternatives for a lot of simpler things (like tablecloths and plates), you can’t easily get biodegradable cutlery or drinks containers that are fitting for a full-scale party.

That being said, anything that you can get will make a huge difference. Instead of throwing away dozens of cups and hundreds of individual plates after a big party, consider using alternatives that can either degrade or be re-used instead.

Not only does this cut down on how much litter you are creating, but it also means that you are not wasting money on things that you were going to throw away anyway. Disposable items can be cheap, but if you are buying a lot of them for each party, the cost quickly adds up, and you might as well use regular options.

Try Going Paperless

Paper can be used for a lot at parties – invites, hats and crowns, posters, signs, decorations, and countless other things. However, the more paper you use, the more you are wasting on a party that probably does not even need them anyway.

It can be hard to think of party decorations without paper, but there are always good alternatives. Consider breaking up old cardboard boxes and painting them instead, or simply relying on your existing furniture to create a party-friendly space.

Invitations are easy enough since you can simply contact people online. If that is not enough for you, try spreading the word in person or dropping it in conversations that you were going to have anyway. This can make it much easier to invite people paper-free.

If the parties involve presents of any kind, then it is not a bad idea to re-use wrapping paper, or simply not have wrapping paper at all. A lot of wrapping paper gets thrown away after being used, and there is no good reason to waste so much.