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10 ideas for a sustainable, plastic-free party

Plastic free party - how to celebrate zero waste

Celebrate plastic free is easy! Whether you're a host or a guest, you can avoid a lot of plastic waste at parties and celebrate sustainably. Because after beach parties, garden parties, or just barbecues, there's usually a bunch of plastic waste left behind. Transfer your plastic free life now also on the celebration. Today you'll get 10 ideas for a plastic-free party that are easy to implement and really not time-consuming. Let's go!

1. plate made of wood & sugar cane or bring it yourself

This is really super easy! Quickly grab the plate from the kitchen and pack it. Your party will leave behind a lot less trash. And if your guests don't want to take things to the party themselves, the party can still be sustainable. Either provide some extra plates from your kitchen or offer sustainable disposable plates from Papstar. The plates are made from sugar cane or wood from German forests, for example. Since 121 cubic meters of wood grows back in Germany every year and only 76 cubic meters of wood are cut down, this makes the party sustainable and plastic-free despite the waste it produces. The following are two recommendations:

View square plates (20 x 20 cm) from sugar cane*

View round plate (23 cm) from sugar cane*

2. stainless steel & paper straws or omit them altogether.

Does it really look cool to drink from a straw? 😉 If your answer is yes, then you should at least switch from plastic straws to sustainable paper, glass or stainless steel straws for a plastic-free party. Because straws are usually only used once, they create far too much plastic waste. If you need straws for your party at all, here are three recommendations for a plastic-free party with paper, glass or stainless steel straws:

View 100 color paper straws*

View 5 glass straws with 2 cleaning brushes*

3. offer sustainable party cutlery or snacks that do not require cutlery!

You can celebrate the plastic-free party even more sustainably by either directly offering only snacks that do not require cutlery (garlic bread, pizza pieces, etc.) or by offering sustainable cutlery. As with plates, you can also get plastic-free spoons, forks and the like made from sustainable wood. Even finger food bowls are available in sustainable form. This way there is no plastic waste and you show how easy it is to celebrate sustainably. The following suggestions for your party cutlery:

Get 100 disposable wooden knives now*

View 100 disposable wooden forks here*

The 100 disposable wooden spoons are here*

View 50 finger food bowls ("shuttles")*

View stainless steel cutlery set (ideal for outdoor)*

Celebrate plastic-free party - Sustainable and without waste
Stainless steel ice cubes keep drinks cold longer and are plastic-free / Photo by TaoTronics (Amazon)

4. use reusable stainless steel ice cubes for cocktails!

Stainless steel ice cubes are especially cool for whiskey drinkers, but are also wonderfully suitable for cocktails and co. Simply put them in the freezer. The ice cube alternative is hygienically safe and cools for an extremely long time.

View 8 Reusable Stainless Steel Ice Cubes with Tongs*

5. bring your own mug, water bottle, glasses and cups.

When it comes to drinks, there are again two options for celebrating the party as sustainably as possible. If you live sustainably anyway, you always have your water bottle with you. So why not just take your own water bottle to the party. As with the plates, I recommend that everyone brings their own cups, mugs, etc. for a sustainable party. After all, everyone usually brings something to drink, so why not bring mugs, cups, etc.? If you provide drinks yourself, a glass drink dispenser is also really cool to avoid plastic waste! If you don't want to do without disposable cups, you can still ensure a sustainable celebration: Papstar offers beverage cups made of polylactic acid (PLA bio-plastic), which is biodegradable. And the coffee spoon is also available sustainably made of birch wood. A cool plastic-free and always reusable alternative are also cups made of stainless steel!

View 70 beverage cups made of PLS (polylactic acid, bio-plastic)*

100 birch wood coffee spoons, unbleached and splinter free view*

View 5 stainless steel drinking cups for your party*

View glass drink dispenser*

7. use paper party decorations or omit them altogether

For children's birthdays or large parties, I can understand decorations such as party garlands, tablecloths and the like. Otherwise, however, you can also do well without decoration, so that the party is more sustainable. If you want to decorate the party a little, then at least with party garlands and tablecloths made of paper. This way, there is no plastic waste and the party is still sustainable.

View Paper Table Cloth (50m x 1m)*

View paper party garlands (6 m long)*

8. offer paper napkins or reusable napkins!

Depending on the type of party, napkins are indispensable. Paper napkins are okay, but usually also packaged in plastic and therefore not as wonderfully sustainable as, for example, reusable Cloth napkins made of linen. Visually cool, easily washable and always reusable.

View 50 paper napkins from Papstar*

View 6 reusable linen napkins*

9. place enough trash cans

Even if it is a sustainable party, there is still waste. Wooden cutlery and the like do not make plastic waste, but they must be disposed of. Therefore, make sure that you set up enough trash cans everywhere and directly already plastic waste and Compost from each other. In this way, you avoid waste being released into the environment and can continue to party sustainably.

Party plastic free - Sustainable party without plastic
Grilling with the "Dutch Oven" / Photo by Petromax (Amazon)

10. fire pot or charcoal grill instead of disposable grill!

The disposable grill immediately makes plastic waste and is anything but sustainable. The barbecue party becomes much cooler with a charcoal grill or a fire pot ( Dutch Oven). The fire pot is made of cast iron and can be used directly after placing it on the embers. The lid can also serve as a pan. The best place to get the charcoal is at your local market.

View the fire pot ("Dutch Oven") for 8 - 14 people*

View lid lifter for fire pot*

Celebrate plastic-free - Is that possible?!

Yes it is possible. And you can do it sustainably and without spending too much time! Just replace everything that is normally at party Plastic waste produced by sustainable or self-brought things, such as plates, cutlery or cups. And you can possibly do without straws or party garlands altogether, right? ;-) I hope that my ten ideas will help you to celebrate more sustainable and plastic-free at your next parties!

Let's expand the list of ideas for a sustainable, plastic-free party together. Just write me your experiences and tips as a comment.

Stay clean,

Celebrate plastic-free - Less plastic waste in the environment

PS: Do you already have a plastic-free gift? Then get inspired here in the plastic free store. Also learn here how to Plastic-free and sustainable gift wrapping can!

Coffee box Suggestions for improvement

* Links with asterisks are so-called affiliate links. If you click on it and buy something, you automatically and actively support my work with CareElite.de, because I get a small share of the sales revenue - and of course the product price does not change. Thank you for your support and best regards, Christoph!

Christoph Schulz

Christoph Schulz

I'm Christoph, an environmental scientist and author - and here at CareElite I'm campaigning against plastic waste in the environment, climate change and all the other major environmental problems of our time. Together with other environmentally conscious bloggers, I want to give you tips & tricks for a naturally healthy, sustainable life as well as your personal development.

9 thoughts on “10 Ideen für eine nachhaltige, plastikfreie Party”

  1. We use cloth tablecloths. They can be washed and reused. Also white bedclothes (without elastic) are great for beer tables

    1. Hey Lisa! Thanks for your inspiration! That is also still a good idea, since there are of course also tablecloths as disposable products.
      Best regards
      Christoph

  2. However, all this is not quite sustainable - even disposable solutions made of paper consume raw materials and end up being trash

    1. Hello Sabine!
      Exactly, it's better if you can wash everything off and reuse it at the next party.
      Many greetings,
      Christoph

  3. Nice article! Compared to before, I already implement much of it and plastic cutlery etc. is consistently avoided.
    Ich finde es auch immer sehr schön zu einer Party eine müllfreie Snackalternative für alle mitzubringen z.B. Keckse, selber gemachte Chips oder dergleichen 🙂

    1. Hi Lisa!
      Tolle Einstellung, behalte dir das bei und zeige anderen, warum das sinnvoll ist 🙂
      Stay clean,
      Christoph

  4. Unfortunately, many of the products you recommend are linked to Amazon and are also wrapped in plastic.
    Unfortunately, this makes your tips unattractive for me

    1. Hi Manuela,
      ich arbeite gerade an einer internen Lösung mit eigenem Shop 🙂
      You can also get many of the products offline in stores.
      Eine schöne plastikfreie Party wünsche ich dir 😉
      Stay clean,
      Christoph

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