Enjoy an Eco-Friendly Party This Summer – Here’s How to.

Warm and long summer days are here.
Here’s how to throw an eco-friendly party in your garden or patio.

With warmer and longer days, the urge to invite family and friends over for a barbecue is ever present. Have fun but at the same time give a thought to how we organise such gatherings and be eco-friendly.

All you need are a few simple adjustments on how to do this:

• Send an e-invite

Forget the card invite. Either just give a phone call or if you are orgainsing something on a bigger scale, an e-invite either through the email or facebook will save paper and hundreds of trees. E-invites make for easy tracking of your RSVPs and quick updates of your event for your guests too.

• Decoration – stay away from one-time use decorations and keep it natural.

Go natural and make use of greenery and flowers found in your garden.

Use fabric reusable banners and choose paper pom-poms over helium balloons.

Go for candles made from soy, beeswax or natural vegetable-based wax. Paraffin candles are made from petroleum residue and are no good for your health or for the environment

And if your party extends beyond the long summer days, use LED lights both indoors and outdoors. LED (Light Emitting Diode) lights use up to 95% less energy than larger, traditional holiday bulbs and last up to 100,000 hours when used indoors.  LED holiday lights use .04 watts per bulb, 10 times less than mini bulbs and 100 times to 100,000 hours when used indoors. As an added bonus, if one of the LED lights on the strand you use to decorate your garden or patio burns out the rest of the strand will stay lit.

• Food - think local and waste not

Buy locally-grown, seasonal and organic food, from your local farmers' shop or market where possible.

Plan the amount to avoid unnecessary wastage. If you have catered for more  than you need, do not serve the            whole lot to avoid contamination. Portion the food to freeze and use for future meals.

• Tableware – disposable or reusable?

Reusable tableware is definitely better than plastic disposables. Not only do we do our bit for the environment but we also save ourselves the frustration of eating out of flimsy tableware that cannot hold a full plate and often leaks.

But running the dishwasher or the washing machine and dryer for cloth napkins will also contribute to emission of gases and water wastage.  Not to mention the hours spent in front of the sink and kitchen

Here’s an eco friendly convenience - use 100 percent biodegradable and compostable partyware such as Element.  Not only is Element a friend of the planet, it is of high quality, leach-proof, non-toxic, freezable and microwaveable tableware. Element can be reuse up to three times. What more, it comes in beautiful vibrant colours that will match your party theme and summer mood.