Hosting Large Events Sustainably

Starting with Theo's baby shower, we've been hosting larger events at our home. Hosting always comes with challenges, but add in my love of (and obsession with) reducing plastic use and that adds in a whole new layer of difficulty. It is possible to host a large party (20 or more people, we have hosted up to 65+) and have minimal waste at the end. Here are some ideas broken down into financial tiers because sadly, finances do dictate a lot but it is possible to host an almost plastic-free, waste-free event on a budget:

FOOD:

High Budget: The easiest and simplest way to host without a bunch of plastic is to hire a catering company that is in line with your values. The caters provide all dishes, flatware and glasses and if there is any food at the end, you can package it up in your own containers to eat at a later time. The only waste that will occur is from guests not finishing their food but you can provide a green waste bin for the caterers to use to compost leftover food. This is also the easiest for you as you get to enjoy your party and not work your butt off serving and cleaning up after everyone

Mid-Budget: Hire a food truck that is organic and sustainable such as Green Truck or Angel City Taco Catering. There are food trucks that offer plastic-free, usually bamboo plate-ware and utinels. Provide beverages that come in glass or aluminum cans such as wine, beer, soda, tea or sparkling water. If you have a food option you like but not enough flatware and plateware, companies like Sustain LA offer a service for that here. They drop off clean dishes and pick up dirty ones- which is pretty amazing.

Low-Budget: Cook most of the sides.

I've found that pasta salad, fruit salad or fruit kabobs (with berries!) and hummus with crudites are always a hit. We offered a green salad at Theo's second birthday party and only some people ate it- plus along with it we provided a variety of salad dressing in glass which was fine but costly. We had bowls of bulk snacks on the table and I baked a bunch of cupcakes from scratch. For plateware we had bamboo plates, bamboo napkins and bamboo utensils. We offered beverages in glass and aluminum but also had aluminum cups (find them here). We washed these and will reuse them in the future. For the main we had sub sandwiches that came in a cardboard box and were individually wrapped in paper. Other main ideas that are plastic-free are pizza (put pizza boxes in greenwaste bin), or tacos from places like Homestate (they come wrapped in aluminum but refuse all of the fixings as they come in plastic containers or plan on reusing the containers).

DECORATIONS:

I start by keeping an eye out on my Buy Nothing page pretty far in advance, snatching up any decorations that will work, and stashing them in a closet. For Theo's 3rd birthday I asked for any sort of "truck" themed decorations and I got some amazing garbage truck decorations, plates, napkins and plastic green forks left over from another garbage-truck-obsessed toddler's party- this reminded me that someone in living near you might have exactly what you need so always ask first before buying!

For Theo's 1st birthday party, in addition to utilizing my Buy Nothing Group, I scoured secondhand site sites like OfferUp and Mercari for anything nautical themed and ended up making a bunch of origami paper boats by hand using scratch paper and paper painted blue leftover from an art project. Full disclosure, I do research on Pinterest to get ideas and then figure out how to recreate a look that I like in a sustainable, eco way.

Fun Tip: I recently discovered that Savers Thrift Stores have an area with donated party decorations- I love this! Although they were all mismashed, the selection I saw could definitely be used to fill in gaps that you might have to round-out your party decorations. Your local thrift store might have something similiar.

Decorations such as blooming potted plants, fresh cut flowers from the Farmer's Market, DIY paper chains or other paper decorations made from paper bags, scratch paper, etc., or other objects that you already own can all be composted or reused so are all great ideas. For example, for Theo's 3rd birthday, I added his actual toy trucks to the truck decorations and it was really charming. It's fun to think outside the box and get creative.

ACTIVITIES:

We have been renting jumpers for Theo's birthdays from a rental place along with some sort of coloring station. Depending on your crowd, other rental companies carry games (think corn hole and giant Jenga) as well. If you host often, finding games secondhand and then reusing them might be the way to go.