Throwing A Sustainable Party

General Tips

Where are you procuring your supplies? Can they be borrowed, rented, or purchased secondhand? Can you make do with what you already have? Are you willing/able to store new items after the event?

Consider if what you use can be used again, donated, or loaned out to friends or family. What will end up in a landfill? Is it worth the environmental impact?

Venues

Lots of gatherings happen in people's homes, but if you're looking for an outside venue, find some that are environmentally friendly. Some questions you can ask at a venue include:

Is there a required catering company and if so, do they use disposables to prepare, transport, or serve food?
Is the venue convenient to public transit? Or is there a Divvy station nearby?
How is leftover food handled?
What is the default tableware? Reusables or disposables?
Does the venue compost? Do they recycle?
Does the venue have vegetarian and/or vegan options?
Do they have any environmental practices they require or encourage?

Invitations

Environmentalism can get started right when you let guests know about your party. The majority of the emissions generated by events come from how guests get to your party, so emphasizing taking public transit, biking, walking, or carpooling is KEY when writing up your invitations and reminders for attendees.

Physical Invitations

For more formal events like weddings, paper invitations are sometimes expected. However, just because something is expected doesn't mean it is required. Are paper invitations something YOU care about? If not, consider sticking to e-invitations or send paper invitations to more traditional guests, and send digital invites to your more tech-savvy guests.

To make paper invitations as sustainable as possible, consider a digital RSVP option instead of RSVP cards. Use recycled material as much as possible. Consider a DIY approach with thrifted materials (The Wasteshed is a great place to start for a project like this!)

Digital invites

Online or texted invitations are a great zero-waste option to get the word out about your gathering. An added bonus is that most online e-invitation sites will also track RSVPs for you. Depending on how creative you are and how custom you'd like your invitations, you can use a full service like Paperless Post or a more DIY option using Canva and emailing or texting the invites out yourself.

When creating your invitation, whether it is a beautifully elegant paper invite or a quick group text, it’s important to make sure you are providing all the information you need. In addition to the general details, you might consider suggesting they take public transit, bike, or walk to the event, to reduce their environmental impact.

If you want to make sure people do NOT bring a gift, food, or drink, it’s okay to make that very clear on your invitation! People still might bring things, but having it clearly spelled out on the invite will reduce the gifts.

Food and Drink

You can limit your environmental impact with your menu in many ways:

Choosing the Right Food: Purchase foods that have less of an environmental burden. Reduce your meat (especially beef and lamb) as these tend to have the highest environmental impact. (More info on the environmental impact of food HERE). Buy from grocers that source locally or regionally. Check out our list of sustainable grocery stores to learn more!
Buy Food with Limited Packaging: This could mean snacks from a zero-waste store, items in bulk, food from the farmer's market, or catered food. Try to bring your own container to refill whenever possible.
Make sure to Compost your food scraps during food prep. This is when you have the most control over what gets actually composted, and usually where the majority of the compostables are produced (vs the party itself). Check out our composting page to learn more about your composting options in Chicago.
Choose Drinks in more Recyclable Materials (glass and aluminum over plastic). Consider locally crafted beer or spirits, from one of Chicago’s many great breweries and distilleries. Two ideas are Koval Distillery in Ravenswood and Apologue Liqueurs/Hoste Cocktails in Pilsen.
For beverages, avoid plastic straws and skewers. You might consider no straw at all, or a bamboo or paper straw if absolutely needed. To add festive flair, consider using chopped fruit or herbs instead of plastic drink accessories, as they are easily compostable.
Limit Food Waste by having reused “to go” containers available - as in, ones that you have acquired secondhand beforehand, such as from to-go orders, Cool-Whip containers, etc. A lot of us save these for reuse, but they can add up over time and the holidays are a great time to clear out your stash! You could also consider asking guests to bring a tupperware container with them.
Make/Buy Food That you Like to Eat so that you can enjoy the leftovers. Try not to go overboard (think about how much and what types of food you used or saw at the last party you went to). If you have leftover food that’s still in a sealed container, consider bringing it to a Love Fridge so others in the community can enjoy it!
Consider Renting Cooking Equipment if you want to prepare certain foods for the event and don’t currently have the tools to do it. The Chicago Tool Library offers some great appliances like slow cookers, air fryers, bread machines, standing mixers, blenders, specialty baking pans, pasta makers, and more!
Make sure recycling and compost bins are clearly labeled and describe what CAN and CANNOT go inside.
If you have your own garden, make something from it! Jams, pickled items, etc. If not, you could consider a Community Supported Agriculture subscription.

Styrofoam plates and plastic cups are too often the go-to's for large (or even small) gatherings. This is where much of the party waste comes from. Some more sustainable options include:

Serveware

Use the dishware you already have
Borrow dishware from friends, family, or your community. “Buy Nothing” and “Freebox” groups on Facebook are a great option for this! People are often very willing to lend items to a neighbor for a short period of time.
Source secondhand dishware from thrift stores or Facebook Marketplace. Storing a new set of plates and glasses may not be within reach, but buying an extra set of forks, knives, and spoons won’t take up as much space and will quickly pay for themselves.
Rent a dishware set from a party kit vendor like Eco Chic Events or another option in the Party Kit Network.
If you can’t do reusable items, use compostable dishware AND use a compost bin (to get the environmental benefits from composting, the dishes must actually be composted!) Please note that bamboo utensils break down much more easily in a compost pile than bioplastics do.

Decor

Before you begin thinking about going all out on decor, remember the reason you are hosting a gathering in the first place: to bring friends and family together and to celebrate community. The people are the most important thing.

That being said, you can have a great looking party without a bunch of waste. Some greener decor options include:

Look through your living space and considering what you already have that could be on theme: vases, picture frames, tablecloths, trays, sheets, pillowcases, etc. Sometimes we have more things that we realize!
Borrow decor from friends, family, or Buy Nothing/Freebox groups. People WANT to help with a party, so if you've been eyeing a friend's cupcake holder or tablecloth, see if they are willing to bring it!
Source secondhand decor from thrift stores or Facebook Marketplace. Our reuse page has some options to consider! Please note that it can be very difficult to give away seasonal items after the season is over and donating seasonal items out-of-season to thrift stores will often be thrown away. If you are not able to store these items for a while after the event, please consider other options.
Rent decor from a party kit vendor like Eco Chic Events.
DIY your decor! With a little creativity, you may be able to create something really lovely with things you already have. One example Eco Chic events uses is to fold napkins in fancy ways for different events, such as tying them into a dog bone shape for a dog birthday party!

Use food as your decor. Nicely decorated cakes or cookies, an impressive charcuterie board, and a braided loaf of bread are all attractive and practical ways to liven up a table or kitchen area while avoiding accumulating extra stuff!

Party Favors

Don't feel like you have to have a party favor to distribute to everyone! It's hard to find a gift that everyone will enjoy, and lots of favors end up in the landfill. Hardly anyone expects a party favor these days, so seriously consider not gifting them.

If you REALLY want to have a favor, consider these ideas:

Consumables (a cookie or bag of popcorn, bar of soap, candy, etc.)
Something from one of the many sustainable local shops listed on our site!
Something homemade (a friendship bracelet, DIY magnet)
Something practical (a pen or pencil, bookmark, etc.)
A card (Consider writing a heartfelt note to each beloved guest)

Being a Sustainable Guest

Just because you aren’t hosting doesn’t mean you can’t make a big impact on the party! Here are some ways to reduce environmental impact and educate:

Travel: If you can take public transit, bike, or walk, do! The majority of event emissions come from how guests get there.

What to Bring:

Food: Avoid meat, especially beef and lamb. Bring something plant-based if there’s a recipe you like! This can open peoples’ minds about plant-based foods, even if they wouldn’t have initially thought of them.

A Composting Setup: Instead of bringing food, offer to bring a composting setup. This includes compostable paper plates (or other serveware) and a compost bucket with signage, and then take the waste home with you. This is also a great way to introduce the concept of composting to a lot of new people at once!
Decor: Offer to lend the host your decor and set it up for them! This saves them the cost of buying it AND the effort of setting this up. This could mean a mantle decoration, banner, tiered plates, fake skeleton, halo light for photos, and more!
Gifts: Respect your Host’s Wishes if they DO NOT Want Gifts! We receive so much pressure to buy STUFF in our culture, even if the person does not need or want it. Consider how much you would want more stuff if you asked people not to bring it to you. Sometimes bringing no gift is truly the most valuable thing for your host, and makes you a better guest!
If you are expected to bring a gift, consider something from our sustainable gift guide.

Throwing a Sustainable Party