Children’s parties can be incredibly wasteful and produce needless rubbish that mostly ends up in landfill. Having a more environmentally conscious party will teach children an important lesson about avoiding unnecessary waste and caring for the planet.
Say no to single use (as much as possible)
Plates, plastic cups, cutlery and straws – Avoid single use when it comes to the party food packaging, paper plates, plastic cups and straws. Instead use reusable tableware and if you need more than you already have, borrow from friends and family, look in your local charity shop, or consider hiring. If you go for biodegradable plates for example, make sure they are 100% biodegradable and don’t leach chemicals as they degrade.
Go glitter free – Glitter and glitter tattoos are fun but are they really that necessary at a party or anywhere for that matter? After a single use, thousands of pieces of glitter may enter into the waters or soil and accumulate in the environment.
Reduce food waste
Prepared food bought at supermarkets produces huge amounts of packaging waste and we dread to think how many perfectly good carrots and cucumbers have ended up in the bin.
Instead, prepare your food together at home to avoid unnecessary waste. Serve up individual portions to avoid grubby mitts rendering any leftovers unsafe / unappealing to eat, so that leftovers can then be used up another day.
Decorating your party
Balloons blow – look no further than the damage they cause to animal life at balloonsblow.org. Kids do love them, so as a minimum try to reduce numbers, minimise foil ones and avoid foil banners. Get in some generic party decorations that can be reused for years and for different children.
Alternatively, use paper decorations and other materials that are made from recycled materials and can be easily recycled.
Leave out the party bags
Party bags traditionally have been plastic bags filled with a few small plastic toys, these toys are often made cheaply in China, don’t last very long and ultimately end up in landfill. It’s really tough at times to find alternatives but you can help reduce the impact by instead considering a book for each child or an eco friendly party bag made of biodegradable material and containing eco friendly goodies.
Gifts
Buying toys is tricky these days due to them often being imported from great distances and sometimes being broken and thrown away quite quickly. When buying toys it’s good to consider how far away they have come from, can something be bought locally, will they last long and is there an alternative?
Alternatives could be to ask for money, let parents know your child is saving up for something special, or ask for books.
Cleaning up
It’s not uncommon for the clear up at a kids party to take the quickest and easiest but most wasteful route of putting everything in black bin bags to head off to landfill.
If you can’t manage reusable everything (which lets face it will be pretty difficult), make sure to recycle as much as possible. Clearly label areas for recycling so helpful parents don’t just bin everything. You may find it easier to take waste home to clean and recycle, if you’ve opted for a party in the park or at a beach, for example.
Donate any extra cutlery/tablecloths back to the charity shop, or give them to your friends for their parties, or simply pack them away for next year.
