Tips for Eco-Friendly Summer Entertaining

Along with summer comes outdoor gatherings and backyard barbecues. While being outside may already seem green, here are five ways to go easy on the earth (and save yourself some bucks) when entertaining.

Dine on Bamboo and Sugar Cane

Several companies — including BAMBU, EATware and Treecycle — now make biodegradable or compostable plates, bowls and cups made from items like recycled plastic or sugar cane. When our parties aren’t too large, we prefer to skip the disposables altogether and use our regular dishes. If you don’t have enough, comb thrift shops and yard sales to create a funky collection of colorful tableware for entertaining. Dress it up with pretty cloth napkins or items from nature for a tablescape right out of HGTV.
Drink with Less Packaging

Fill glass pitchers with water, lemonade or iced tea instead of buying individual bottles. (They also look nicer on the table.) Nix the juice boxes for large bottles of juice poured into reusable cups. If you have a lot of beer drinkers, a mini keg is more sustainable and cost-efficient than a myriad of bottles or cans. Always locate recycle bins in convenient places for the guests.
Grill with Gas

Studies have shown that gas grills are more eco-friendly than charcoal because the liquefied petroleum burns more efficiently and releases half the amount of carbon emissions — with less worries about asthma-inducing soot and VOCs. If you’re dead set on charcoal, look into sustainably produced options such as Wicked Good Charcoal, which is made from industrial scrap wood.
Conserve Energy

Rather than filling a house with hot bodies and cranking up the air conditioner, go with the flow of nature. Plan your party around the weather and time of day. In the heat of July, an evening soiree will be naturally cooler. During the daytime, a shady park or lakeside location will cool off guests and tempers. Instead of having kids run through sprinklers (which can use 265 gallons of water per hour), toss ice cubes down their shirts or keep washcloths in the freezer for wrapping around little necks. It feels great!
De-Bug Naturally

If you plan ahead of time, you can landscape your outdoor entertaining area with plants that naturally deter mosquitoes. Pots of marigolds, lemon balm, catnip or citronella (a perennial grass) can act as a bug-deterring border on the patio. For the kids, seek out safer alternatives to DEET such as natural bug repellents that use essential oil blends like geranium, rosemary, peppermint and lavender.