Plan a Less-Waste Holiday

My daughter asked me the other night, “Is Thanksgiving the next holiday?”

With a holiday-a-month coming up for the next few months, it’s easy to forget how it can be overwhelming for kids.

With Covid, you may or may not be planning gatherings for friends and relatives for the next few holidays. No matter who you celebrate with, you can plan now to reduce the amount of waste you create at your holiday gathering.

Consider these easy switches:

• Real plates instead of foam or paper

• Real silverware instead of plastic

• Cloth tablecloths instead of plastic

• Cloth napkins instead of paper

• Coffee mugs for beverages

To make things smoother at our house, I set out a laundry basket for the napkins to go into, a basin with soapy water for the silverware, and no one “loses” their drinks because they can find the coffee mug that they had chosen for the day.

It takes a little effort to do the dishes and run a load of laundry afterward, but it’s worth it for the reduced garbage.

Give it a try! Your guests will hopefully be able to focus on spending time with each other instead of taking out the trash. :)