Dinner parties generally lead to a hefty amount of waste! It’s time to ditch the plastic cutlery, bamboo straws, plastic decoration, paper napkins, and paper tablemats and switch to greener and eco-friendly options. One can also choose from a wide range of non-toxic cookware like copper, clay, cast iron, brass, and bronze for conscious cooking. With creativity and extra planning, a zero-waste dinner party is possible. Here is a list of top tips to host an excellent dinner party that doesn’t clog up the landfills!

How to have a zero-waster dinner party

Strike paper napkins, towels, and tablemats off the menu

Napkins and tablemats are party saviours! But they need not be made of paper. Offer the guest some sophisticated cotton napkins. Thoughtfully curated, these eco-friendly napkins aid in cleaning spills and stains.

Not only napkins, but there are also cotton table runners, metal straws, and cotton tablemats to host a green dinner party. Several options are available online to select from a unique range of colours, designs, and sizes to match your dining area.

Bring in some coconut and bamboo cutlery

From bamboo straws, spoons, bowls, and individual bamboo cutlery kits to unique coconut shot glasses, coconut bowls, spoons, and forks to salt and pepper shakers, there’s everything on the Amala Earth website. Sourced from Nature, the coconut and bamboo cutlery are handmade, heat-resistance, odour, and stain-free.

These lightweight, ecological, and reusable cutleries can return to nature when discarded, making them perfect for a zero-waste dinner party. These up-cycled cutleries even make good gift sets.

Be mindful of decorations

1. While decorating the dining area, steer away from single-use decorations and switch to sustainable ones. For instance, swap the fresh bouquets with the dried and preserved bouquet or an elegant cotton paper flower bouquet box. One can also think of decorating the dining space with handmade elephant string, heart pom-pom string, macrame, and other festive torans.

Go green with eco-friendly lighting set-up and candles

One of the best ways to host a zero-waste dinner party is to re-think the wastage of regular wax candles, plastic lamps, or one-time-use LED light strips. Products like handmade decorative string lights, bamboo lamps, and eco-friendly soy wax candles will add bliss and beauty to the dining space. People who want to be surrounded by candles or diyas can use brass Diya sets and brass candle holders.

Home cooking opens doors to sustainable meals

Food is the most integral component of a dinner party. However, do not go overboard with ordering meals or buying pre-cooked foods. Rather try and cook everything: from starters and main courses to desserts. Hosts can seek help from family and friends in preparation. Doing so will ensure fresh and healthy food sans artificial flavouring or additives. To keep up with the health quotient, one can choose Kansa and copper dinnerware to cook and serve food. However, remembering to cook in limited portions is the key to avoiding food wastage.

Invest in low-waste snacks and choose the right party serveware

Pre-meal nibbles or snack items remain the major contributor to dinner party wastage. Therefore, preparing snacks mindfully will help cut down the dinner budget and take care of everybody’s health. Fresh fruits with homemade chocolate sauce, chopped and sautéed raw vegetables with homemade hummus dip, and homemade crisps and toasts always go down exceedingly well.

Furthermore, canned drinks or plastic bottled juice can be replaced with serving refreshments from tumblers or jugs. While the guests can be requested to re-use the glasses, metal straws too can be a good addition in place of paper or plastic straws! One must also consider keeping more sharing party servewares to minimise food wastage.