Thanksgiving always marks the beginning of the holiday season for me. Over the next month, most weekends are filled with celebrations and holiday activities. However, that means we will generate three times as much food waste as we do the rest of the year. Not to mention the other trash we produce from packaging, cans, gifts, etc. Today’s Tip Tuesday is here to help with that! Below you’ll find ideas on how to have the most sustainable Thanksgiving ever and start the holiday season on the right foot!
- Buy locally: We use enough resources getting our families from point A to point B, that we might want to consider buying some (or all!) of our food locally. Check out local farms for vegetables and turkeys. A local bakery will have some delicious rolls to accompany dinner.
- Use real plates: Using real plates produces much less trash and even in the dishwasher, you probably use less water than hand washing all the dishes. If you must use paper plates, opt for a compostable plate.
- Use real utensils too: Aside from being a single-use plastic waste, there’s nothing more disappointing than your fork snapping in half before you get to even take your first bite of food.
- Compost, compost, compost: Most of the food we eat on Thanksgiving can be composted or at least repurposed! Stale bread? Make croutons! Potato peels? Compost! Check out what to do with all your Thanksgiving food waste here.
- Make the right amount of food: Hear me out, I’m not saying don’t make enough for leftovers (because I love my leftovers as much as the main meal) but, if you make TOO much food, even the leftovers will end up going to waste. Use a food calculator to determine how much food you actually need.
- Simple decorations: Plastic, single-use decorations are wasteful and expensive. Opt for some homemade, upcycled crafts to decorate. Like this tin-can turkey!
Sources and helpful links: Food Calculator, Full Circle Compost guide, Smithsonian’s Sustainable Thanksgiving Tips, TreeHungers Green Thanksgiving Guide and Harvard’s Green Thanksgiving Tips.
Featured Photo by Stacy Spensley
Another great way to make Thanksgiving more sustainable is to choose reusable materials to store left-overs. Skip the Ziplock bags and Plastic wrap and opt for kitchen containers or Bees Wrap instead, which you can find at many local health food stores! If you run out of containers or don’t have Bees Wrap choose tin foil to cover bowls and plates, which, unlike plastic wrap, can be easily recycled.
Oh! And choose as much package free items at the grocery store as you can, i.e. loose potatoes vs. a plastic bag full–this will also help with tip #5 by allowing you to select only the amount you need!
Don’t forget your reusable produce bags! 🙂
Those are great suggestions! Thanks for sharing, Dorothy!