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It is almost the festive season again, so make your parties rock this green world this year. Minimise waste, maximise fun......here is our guide on how to do it.

Sustainable and Stylish Entertaining

By Gina Cacho (BSc)

Minimising environmental impact and maximising style is the hallmark of sustainable entertaining. Goodbye campfires, unshaven legs and tasteless soy patties,  Green entertaining is more hip than hippie. After all, Green is the new Black!

Be it an afternoon in the garden enjoying high tea or an extravagant cocktail party, the way we choose to celebrate, can nurture or disrupt the environment. The aftermath of many parties is a sea of empty and half empty bottles, plastic plates, half eaten meals and usually a great deal of mess! Unfortunately according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics,  95% of all this solid waste, ends up in landfill.

The good news is that having a divine event and being ‘green’ are not mutually exclusive.Here’s your ‘how to’ guide for sustainable and stylish entertaining

Invites should have a huge impact, but not on the environment. Using recycled and non-bleached papers or creating e-invites, is a great way to start, but if you want to make your  invite really stand out, theme it appropriately.

Here’s some ideas to get you started;

Baby Shower: buy second hand cotton baby clothes and use an iron on transfer to get the invite onto the clothes!

Kids Party: try using pages from old colouring books as individual invites.  Ask the kiddies to bring the invite along and colour it in as a gift for the birthday boy or girl, so they can start their own ‘art collection’.

Christmas Party: incorporate old Christmas cards on a base of recycled paper for  unique invites.

Decorations can make or break the look of a party, however the habit of buying throw away decorations, is a little tragic from an environmental perspective, so use your inner creative genius and get hunting for green ideas. Try the following green alternatives;

Soy or beeswax candles with pure essential oils are a great alternative to the toxic petrochemical derived paraffin varieties which often contain hormone disrupting synthetic fragrances.

Small Garden Stones make great place cards, just write names on with a permanent marker. At the end of the night you can place them back in the garden.

Organic herbs make a fantastic centre piece that also allows diners to self garnish.

Used bottles  sprayed with a non-toxic paint make funky sustainable eco vases which look great in clumps around the house or in the backyard.

An inviting aroma can have the most incredible effect on mood. Unfortunately the majority of room sprays are full of dangerous synthetic chemicals, many of which are known to disrupt the endocrine (hormonal) system. Pure essential oils or freshly baked goodies offer a natural alternative.

Plastic and paper dishes are difficult to eat from, look terrible and persist in landfill for hundreds of years.  If you really can’t face the piles of dishes that follow a major celebration, opt for biodegradable palm leaf or bamboo plates and serving dishes that look fantastically modern and easy to use.

Going organic is vital for truly sustainable entertaining. Certified organic food is grown without the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilisers thereby protecting the environment and your health. Organic food not only taste incredible, it also has higher antioxidant levels and in many cases higher nutrient levels than conventionally grown food.

Beer, wine, cider, softies, spirits, tea or coffee? Whatever drink takes your fancy you can now get an organic variety. Lower preservative levels, negligible pesticide residues, environmental protection and a little moral high ground all in one drink! Perfect for those who like the idea of saving the world one drink at a time. For the kiddies,  frozen organic raspberries in water make a  luscious looking pink drink, that tastes and looks celebratory, without the frenzy inducing additives and plastic bottles.

The aftermath of a party is often daunting with or without a post festivity headache!  It’s tempting to just chuck everything in the bin. To ensure that you recycle everything possible, have your bins set out before the party starts, one for  recyclables, one for compost food scraps and one for true rubbish. That way, it’s less work for you, and by getting your guests involved in the recycling process you’ll be setting a very respectable standard.

You probably already have everything you need for a great sustainable party, so open your cupboard and your mind and you’ll be an eco-host in no time! While eco-entertaining may not be the first thing on the mind of environmentalists, it is certainly an enjoyable way to save the world and in reality it’s the little things we do everyday that count.