How to organize an Eco-Friendly Holiday Party

Did you know Christmas can be one of the most wasteful holidays of the year?

While the average person produces 35 lbs (15kg) of trash per week, during the holidays this increases up to 44 lbs (20kg). Taking into account the overall population, this means, every year during the holidays, trash disposal can go as high as 2 billion lbs (1.5 billion kg).

It’s time to start implementing sustainable practices during festivities!

Start the holiday celebrations on the right foot with these tips 👇

1. Switch to LED holiday lights

If there’s a time when there’s light everywhere and everywhen, it’s Chritsmas time. Not only in the streets and public places, but everywhere in everyone’s home, from the facade and backyard to the living room and bedrooms. 

While they do look really pretty and festive, they also spend a lot of time lit and consuming energy, which is why, one of the most simple and effective changes you can make during the holidays, is to switch to LED Christmas lights that consume less than half the energy of normal lights.

2. Skip the disposable dishes and cutlery

During this time of the year, there are a lot of parties and gatherings happening, which lead to a lot of meals cooked and drinks served. 

While it may seem like the easiest  and less complicated decision to buy disposable dishes and cutlery, the reality is that these are one of the most polluting and wasteful products people consume.

By choosing to host your parties with reusable dishes and cutlery, not only do you contribute to less waste and polluting trash, but you actually save money in the long-run. 

3. Make your own DIY Holiday Decor

With all the Christmas decorations being sold in stores, it may be tempting to buy new ones each year to change things up a bit in your home. Ofte, people may think they need replacements or new items, when really, they could make do with things they already own. 

Try gathering everything you have and making DIY Decor from that. You could even make it a fun family activity to bond over the holidays and keep the kids entertained!

4. Buy a natural potted tree from a Non-Chemical Farm

In recent years, it has become a usual practice to buy reusable – but plastic – faux Christmas Trees, supposedly being a more environmentally friendly option. When actually, real trees remain a more sustainable option. 

The plastic in Faux Christmas Trees will take hundreds of years to disintegrate, all meanwhile, the process of its making and transportation, being one of the most polluting and wasteful. 

Natural Christmas trees keep being more Eco-Friendly, and you can opt for a lot of different choices to make sure it’s even a more sustainable one. Try finding local tree farms and avoid any distributor that transports trees from too far away, and remember checking farms for its chemical and pesticides use. 

Another great way to make sure you are choosing an Eco-Friendly option, is to opt for natural potted trees, meaning afterwards they can be planted to keep growing somewhere else. 

5. Use up-cycled gift boxes and bags

Every year people give and receive hundreds of gift boxes and bags that end up in the trash. Make a habit to save them and reuse them so they don’t end up as a one-use-only polluting item. 

Encourage people close to you, in your parties and gift exchanges, to apply the same principle so you all contribute to less waste and throwing away things.

6. Organize a second-hand only gift exchange

Lastly, one of the most common things during the holidays are the over-consumerism tendencies, while not only buying things for parties but many gifts for friends and family. Gifts that many times, end up being also a token of appreciation during a time and are not really needed things. 

Still, gift exchanges and giving are a big thing during the holidays and a most-awaited activity, so you can try and make it more sustainable by organizing one when everybody agrees to gift each other second-hand unique items.

Join a Sustainability-Oriented Community!

In Nativis Projex, you’ll find a community of people with keen interests on sustainability just like yours. Learn more about living Eco-Friendly by relating to others within the community and sharing your knowledge.

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