It’s Party Time

Get your green on!

This time of year is the time to celebrate!  Add just few of these suggestions to your next party,  and you’ll be a little kinder to our planet.

Green Party Tips– Ways to make your next party stylish, fun, and green.

•    Use what you already have
You know those dishes, glasses, and place settings you put on your registry but still haven’t taken out of the cabinet? Now is the time to break them out. You’ll have to do a little extra cleanup at the end of the night, but isn’t reversing global warming worth an extra few minutes?

•   Personalize those cups

If you insist on using disposable glassware, buy the kind made from recycled or sustainable materials (look for stuff manufactured from corn resin or sugar-cane stalk, or items labeled “biodegradable” or “100 percent recycled content”). And prevent the cup-mistaken-identity syndrome (you know, when someone takes a cup and places it next to an identical one, and then both people have to get new cups) by taking a Sharpie and marking each cup with a personalized monogram.

•    Light it up

Cut down on electricity and create a romantic (and, let’s face it, flattering) glow by placing lit candles everywhere. Use soy or beeswax candles, which, unlike petroleum-based paraffin candles, won’t emit toxic, sooty fumes.

•  Be thrifty
When looking for hosting odds and ends that will add a finishing touch to your decor — like salad servers and place mats — check out flea markets and thrift shops. As long as you wash them in incredibly hot water, you are actually getting something amazingly unique and doing your part to create less trash. After all, if you didn’t buy it, it might have been thrown out.

•  Go local
Skip the produce aisle at your regular grocery store, and visit a local farmers market to grab your greens. Or if your supermarket chain carries a local organic vendor line, all the better. You’ll not only get pesticide- and hormone-free products, but buying local items means they’ve had to travel only a short distance (versus thousands of miles) to get to your house. And if you haven’t guessed it already, that means they used up less fuel.

•    Fill ‘er up
Treat your friends to organic wines and spirits, and you’ll be treating them to drinks without pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Another reason you’re hearing and seeing so much “buy organic” propaganda is that it supports farmers who make the extra effort to not pollute the soil, which helps Big Momma Earth.

•   Give away your decor
Decorate your pad with small organic plants — they’ll help clear the air of carbon dioxide, of course, and pump in more oxygen. Then give them away as favors. Encourage guests to plant them, and you’ll be spreading that earth-lovin’ love!

•    Recycle
This might be the “duh” tip of the day, but if you don’t do it already, you must. Check absolutely everything you’re about to throw away to see if you can use it again (even if it’s to send home extra food with a guest). And if you can’t use it, make sure glass, paper, and plastic products get thrown out in the recycle bin. This will preserve natural resources, cut down on junk heading to landfills, and reduce the amount of energy used and pollution emitted in the manufacturing of new products.

•    Clean up green
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Organic stuff equals good for the planet. So use spray cleaner and dishwashing liquid that won’t add bad chemicals to the water supply, air, and soil. We like Method (methodhome.com) because its products smell yummy. And if you must use paper towels (reusable cloths are ideal), get recycled products from Seventh Generation (seventhgeneration.com) or Planet (planetinc.com). And for whatever waste you have (hopefully, it’s not too much), use biodegradable trash bags, like the ones from BioBag (biogroupusa.com).

Now go and have fun!