21 of the Best Eco-Friendly Party Supplies and Tips

Remarkably Easy Tips to Host a Sustainable Tea Party

If you want to host a zero-waste tea party but don't know where to start with eco-friendly party supplies, this blog is for you. Teabloom has some of the best tips, suggestions, and ideas for making your party as waste-free as possible. Let's start with the number one rule that makes a sustainable party come to life: be prepared.

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1. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare!

The earlier you can prepare, the better. It's the last-minute ' in a pinch' moments that will have you scrambling to 'just get anything' to make the event come together. Plan everything well ahead of the event and start gathering all your decor and essentials with plenty of time to spare.

2. Send Digital Invites

Yes, there's something about receiving a paper invitation that's so real, nostalgic, and special ' but not the most sustainable option. If you want to set a good example with your eco-friendly party supplies, include your invitations in the mix. 

We recommend sending digital invites with the colors and theme of your party and instructions for your guests. Important instructions might include an RSVP deadline, items they should bring from home, or dress code recommendations.

3. Ask About Dietary Requests/Restrictions

One of the best ways to reduce food waste is to account for people's dietary needs and food restrictions/allergies. Start gathering information a few weeks in advance to plan and purchase ingredients and eco-friendly party supplies. The more time you can give yourself, the better ' and if you have buffer room to make last-minute changes, that's great.

Pro tip: You can also plan your menu around seasonal favorites. Making dishes they can't get year-round is a great way to mitigate food waste because your guests won't want to miss out on the limited-time flavors.

4. Keep the Menu Short and Sweet

Keep the menu simple and minimal to reduce the amount of food waste and discourage overeating. Small finger foods are your best friend for these sustainable parties. On the invite, encourage your guests to bring some reusable containers from home so they can take their favorite leftovers to-go and cut down on waste.

5. Choose a Responsible Tea Company

See out tea that's fair-trade certified and organic. Minimal packaging or reusable packaging ' like reusable containers ' is ideal when it comes to eco-friendly party supplies. The tea industry is a big place so make sure to source your tea from a responsible and reputable tea company that has your health and sustainability in mind.

6. Offer More Variety with Compostable Tea Sachets

If you're concerned that one or two different teas won't satiate the plethora of taste bud preferences among your friends, get a sustainable tea sampler. This World of Teas Pyramid Tea Chest has 24 different tea sachets that are 100% compostable. With such a beautiful variety of flavors, your friends will be comfortable choosing whatever flavor tea they prefer.

7. Choose Package-Free Food

Plastic bags and wrappers are abundant ' especially when it comes to tea-time snacks like cookies, breads, and scones. You may be tempted to buy ready-made goodies, in boxes or bags, but stay the course! This will probably be the most effective eco-friendly party supplies tip to bring your sustainable party to life.

8. Make the Party Food

Planning a homemade menu helps reduce the plastic packaging, so make your own party food. When you make your recipes instead of buying a ready-made item in a plastic container, you can help cut down on waste. Homemade snacks are always delicious and heartfelt and they are an excellent way to minimize packaging waste.

9. Buy Locally to Reduce Packaging

To reduce plastic waste, pick up a loaf of bread from your local bakery. Visit your local farmers market and bring your reusable bags to buy seasonal fruit, vegetables, and all the eco-friendly party supplies to make your sandwiches and treats. It might not be perfectly plastic-free, but you can reduce the plastic by a lot by sourcing locally and using your bags to go to the market.

10. Go Vegan for the Planet

If you want to take your menu to the next environmentally friendly level, consider hosting a vegan tea ' or even a vegetarian tea if vegan is too extreme. By offering food choices that are animal-friendly you may also have a lower environmental impact. Veganism is a lifestyle that's in line with sustainable living.

11. Get Creative with Edible Labels

Don't like the idea of using paper at all for your party? Use cookies and write down the names of dishes or use them as table-setting cards. Sugar cookies, crunchy shortbread, and French macarons are excellent for icing script, chocolate lettering, or edible markers/pens. They are delicious, cute, and one of our most clever eco-friendly party supplies.

12. Choose Reusable Serveware

Forego the paper and plastic plates, and disposable utensils, cups, and napkins. Instead, choose eco-friendly party supplies like reusable and sustainable tableware. Set out the glasses, break out the silverware, and divvy up the cloth napkins for an elevated experience.

13. Use Sustainable Teaware

One of the best investments you can make is with a borosilicate glass tea set ' but don't stop there! Teabloom's teapots and tea cups are delightful for tea, but their all-brew pitchers, glasses, and mugs are incredible for everyday use. You'll make iced tea, hot coffee, tea cocktails, cocoa, and hot cider all in a sleek, functional, and affordable design.

14. Just Say No to Plastic Decorations

Stay away from new plastic decorations or items that aren't recyclable, compostable, or reusable. Not all plastic decorations are off-limits, as long as you already have them. You can also borrow decorations from friends, family, or neighbors. 

Put your old decor to good use as much as you can because the idea of thrifting and reusing is very sustainable. Now, look at that! Your old decorations magically turn into eco-friendly party supplies that keep on giving.

15. Say Yes to Natural Decor

For natural decor, you can use fresh flowers, dried flowers, twigs, branches, cloth settings, or even flowers from the farmers market or your garden. Natural elements bring a down-to-earth and whimsical air to your sustainable party. If you want to spare the florals, use your beautiful food display as your decor focal point for a minimalist and intentional presentation.

You can even use a blooming tea set as a beautiful floral centerpiece. It makes for a gorgeous flower show and a delicious, inviting flowering tea experience.

16. Use Paper and Fabric Decorations for Extra Flair

Fabric and paper decorations like streamers, pom poms, lanterns, garlands, and banners can be recycled or composted. These are typically eco-friendly party supplies. After the party, keep as much as you can and repurpose these pieces in the future.

17. Get Creative with Lighting

Lighting sets the mood of any party. Use non-paraffin candles made of bee wax, soy, or coconut oil for a more eco-friendly party supplies solution. LED Twinkle lights or fairy lights are a wonderful investment you can repurpose for other events. You can also use them for the Hygge-inspired corner of your home.

18. Borrow or Rent the Essentials

Do you need a bigger table or extra chairs? Consider renting or borrowing from friends or neighbors instead of purchasing these large items yourself. You can also borrow dishes or other eco-friendly party supplies if you don't want to store them long-term in your space.

19. Hide the Trash Can

Put the recycle bin/compost bin front and center so your guests aren't tempted to throw everything away all willy-nilly into the garbage can. Make it easy to navigate by labeling the compost (for food scraps), baskets (for cloth napkins), and dish bins (for dirty dishes) with instructions for what goes where.

20. Teach Your Guests Before You Start

Your guests might not know HOW to navigate an eco-friendly party, so teach them! Welcome them and don't be shy about telling them where food scraps go or where to put their dirty linens when they're finished. This might be their first time at a sustainable party so be generous and courteous and offer helpful guidance.

21. Minimize Leftovers

Leftovers are a happy and inevitable side effect of good parties. On your invitation, ask your guests to bring a reusable bag and some containers. This way, they have the option of bringing leftovers home in a sustainable and zero-waste manner.

Start Planning with Teabloom

Set the date and start planning your sustainable party today! When you're ready to order your tea cups and teaware, explore Teabloom for eco-friendly party supplies. Reuse their elegant and crystal clear teaware for any themed tea party ' or any type of party for that matter. 

Do you have any other eco-friendly party tips? We want to hear your creative ideas. Share them below! 

Is there such a thing as an eco-friendly trash bag?

When it comes to trash bags, there's plenty of confusing verbiage. Compostable? Biodegradable? Bags with post-consumer recycled content? While one could certainly make the argument that biodegradable and compostable trash bags aren't worth the money since they're headed to the landfill anyway (those pits aren't vegetable gardens, after all); the more cynical amongst us could say there's no such thing as an eco-friendly trash bag if it holds bad-for-the-planet waste.

The goal is certainly to reduce the amount of trash sent to the landfill each week, but the reality is that most of us generate waste. And while purchasing eco-friendly trash bags doesn't give us carte blanche to throw away as much as we want, buying the right bags is a simple and accessible lifestyle switch.

The best part? There are plenty of bags on the market that are strong, easy to use, and eco-friendly (no spillage to see here!). 

The company is the world’s best Biodegradable Party Bags Supplier supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.

Read on for 5 things to consider when buying your next set of trash bags. 

[Note: While this post is sponsored, all opinions are my own.] 

1. Eco-friendly trash bags are often compostable.

Whereas bags made from plastic require fossil fuels extraction and contribute to our collective microplastics problem, eco-friendly ones generally create fewer greenhouse gases and toxic chemicals. The best ones won't create microplastics, either. 

If you're looking for a trash bag made from plant-based bioplastics instead of plastics made from fossil fuels, look for ones that are compostable.

'Compostable' is a well-regulated term that means something will break down without safety or environmental concerns within a defined period of time and become an element of usable compost.

It's important to note that compostable bags won't compost appropriately in a landfill. Landfills are airtight by design: no sunlight and no oxygen means no composting. And because bioplastics are often made from plant materials like corn and soy they suffer from the same problems as any mass-grown crop including diminished biodiversity, soil degradation, and polluted surrounding waterways.

Compostable trash bags aren't perfect, but they're close. They're the gold standard for holding compostable waste: if you send your compost to an industrial facility you can place your compost in a compostable bag (just make sure the bag says its compostable in an industrial facility first).

And if you're a home composter, place your scraps in a bag that's designated as home compostable to keep your bin clean and smell-free. 

I use HoldOn compostable bags in my own household. They're especially great for: 

Household trash. HoldOn compostable trash bags are ridiculously strong. I'm militant about sending as few bags of trash to the landfill each week as possible (I try to put 2 week's worth of trash in one bag!), so I stuff them to the brim. HoldOn bags are strong enough to be jam packed with heavy trash and I'm happy to report I've never had a spillage incident.

Yard cleanups. I use HoldOn bags when cleaning up my yard because they're home compostable. I simply place compostable yard items in the bag, then I compost the bag and its contents with very little effort. Easy peasy! 

Storage. HoldOn's bags are great for storing non-trash items, too. Stuffed animals? Old clothes? Items to donate? Yes, yes, and yes.  When I'm done with the bag, I simply compost it. No waste to see here!

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2. Choose a compostable bag with a reputable third party certification.

If you're on board with buying compostable bags, be sure they're actually compostable by looking for ones with a 3rd party certification. 

You'll want to purchase from a company that proudly holds one of the following three certifications to attest that the bags will compost as they should:

• • ASTM D certified
  • BPI certified (the American equivalent of ASTM D)
  • TUV certified (the UK equivalent)

HoldOn's trash bags are BPI and TUV certified. As a home composter this matters to me. 

3. Avoid products that are 'biodegradable'.

In order for an item to be correctly labeled as biodegradable, it must completely break down and return to nature within a reasonably short period of time. Sounds great, right?

Not quite. 

There are plenty of problems with 'biodegradable' verbiage. The term is grossly overused; it's also unregulated. 'Biodegradable' is in many cases synonymous with greenwashing and the State of California outlawed the use of the terms 'biodegradable,' 'degradable,' or 'decomposable' because of such rampant greenwashing.

Save yourself the headache and avoid trash bags marketed as biodegradable.

Remember:

The term 'compostable' is regulated; 'biodegradable' is not.

4. If buying bags made from recycled plastic, make sure the bag boasts a high percentage of post-consumer recycled plastic.

Eco-friendly trash bags may indeed be made from post-consumer recycled plastic.

Such bags require fewer virgin resources and your purchase invests in systems that efficiently remove plastic from waste streams. 

But there's still the microplastics problem; there's the potential toxicity issue, too. If you're vehemently opposed to plastic products for issues related to human health, recycled plastic trash bags aren't for you. 

But if you're interested in eco-friendly trash bags made from recycled content, be sure to consider the percentage of materials that are actually recycled before purchasing. In many cases, only a portion of the bag uses recycled materials. One brand may use significantly more recycled plastic (90%) than another (50%). 

It's also important to dig deep into the brand before buying. Has the manufacturer taken other steps to reduce their environmental impact? Is sustainability a forethought that's embedded in the company's mission, or is it simply an afterthought?

5. Above all else, skip the traditional plastic bag.

Most conventional trash bags are made from 100% low-density polyethylene (LDPE) which is manufactured using non-renewable fossil fuels.  Fossil fuels are pulled from the earth (and emit greenhouse gases in the process) to create bags we use for garbage collection.

Don't forget the microplastics problem: Plastic trash bags break down into tiny pieces of plastic which contaminate oceans, harm marine animals, and enter our food supply.

We can do better! Remember: eco-friendly trash bags are compostable OR made from majority post-consumer recycled content.

The final word

The right trash bag isn't the solution to our collective overconsumption; it the solution to our collective wastefulness, either. Only once we reduce the amount of garbage we produce should we then consider purchasing eco-friendly trash bags for the little waste that's left.

Learn more about how HoldOn compostable trash bags checks all these boxes and more!

(Even better? Use code SUSTAINABLE at checkout for 15% off!)

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