Having A Sustainable Graduation Party

Having a party can produce a lot of garbage and waste. Every time we have family over and everybody leaves I can't believe the amount of garbage we throw away. We're talking paper plates, paper bowls, utensils, napkins, containers and more. For awhile I thought it might save us some waste and some money buying disposable items if we just used the dishes we had but once I realized that took a lot of working washing all those items that didn't pan out. Plus, I have a six year old son and he likes patterned plates, cups and such when the part is in his honor (Which it usually is).

I decided to throw my little man a little pizza party next month to celebrate his graduation from kindergarten. Yes I like to entertain and look for any reason to host! I didn't want to do the traditional kids plates and such that we usually get for his birthday so I did some looking around. I wanted to decorate and keep things looking unique but I didn't want to go crazy with the items.

The items we are ultimately going to use are from Susty Party. Susty makes responsibly made party supplies with tons of different patterns and colors. All of their products are compostable and what I like is that their products don't come across as those 'green' recycled products that are on the market. Susty Party has sturdy, high quality products that you wouldn't think are eco-friendly.

We are using a bioplastic tablecloth which is gray and has stars all over it. It's actually more heavy duty than the cheap tablecloths I usually pick up at the party supply store. We have compostable dinner plates, cake plates and bowls. Recycled cotton napkins will be on the table as will compostable drink cups, wood cutlery and even compostable paper straws. Normally if I went through all that in my head I would picture really earthy looking, cardboard based products. Not at all! Susty seriously has some of the cutest party-ware that I have seen.

We'll be ordering pizza which comes in a cardboard box that can be recycled but that's about where the sustainability ends! Normally that big back of garbage that I take out at the end of the party would make me think about how much we are contributing to the garbage dumps. With this party I'll feel a little better about our waste consumption! Now to make sure I finish off that ice cream cake so there's no waste there...