It’s Thanksgiving and we would like to wish all of our customers, vendors and waste industry partners a safe and Happy Thanksgiving! This is a wonderful time of year to spend with family and friends. All of us are generally guilty of eating a bit too much this time of year (which cuts down on food waste, ha), but there is no reason to forget best practices when it comes to staying green through the holidays. Here are some tips for having a green Thanksgiving which may applied all year long:
- Dust off the good china and break out the cloth napkins. Disposable dishes, plastic utensils and paper napkins create a lot of unnecessary waste. If you simply serve too many guest to make reusable plates and cups work for your dinner, please choose disposable plates, cups, napkins and utensils made from recycled materials.
- Lean on Nature for an assist with decorations. Now is a great time of year to scour the backyard for some pine cones and acorn,s leaves and branches. Filling up a vase or spent wine bottle with natural decorations makes for a great accent.
- Phone a friend and borrow. Forget buying that expensive dish which you are only going to use once anyway. When it comes to baking dishes, see what you can borrow from friends and family!
- Cut down on Travel. If you can’t stay close to home this Thanksgiving, at least find a way to carpool on your way to Grandma’s house! Of course the less you travel, the smaller your carbon footprint will be for the day.
- Smaller plates = less food waste. Think about it. More food ends up in the tupperware for leftovers as opposed to in the trash can or garbage disposal.
- Serve tap water. Plastic water bottles account for a tremendous amount of waste. The more we all drink tap or filtered water, the less we will contribute to this problem.
All of us at ASI Waste hope you adopt at least one or two of these tips this year and share them with folks at your Thanksgiving table!