Making Your 4th of July Get Together a Bit More Eco-Friendly

Entertaining is something that I’ve always enjoyed. Having a house full of good friends and family and providing them with a memorable experience is something that I find really rewarding. My favorite type of event is the classic American potluck dinner where each person brings a dish, side, drink, or dessert to share. As the 4th of July is the perfect time for these events let’s talk about how to make your get together a little more eco-friendly and to save a little extra money while doing so.

There are so many advantages of a potluck. First, it makes a larger event more manageable because everyone contributes a little. No one has much to do to prepare. Each person just provides their own small piece to the larger feast.  Second, this allows the great home chef to create amazing foods and share their creations. I’ve found many people get excited when they tell me what they’ve cooked up and brought to our little social event.

Simple white plates can be used for any event. A festive American flag napkin makes this feel like the 4th of July!

The first potlucks I hosted were small, maybe 10 people, but then I decided to try to do something a little bigger and ended up with 25 participants. Someone brought paper plates, and another brought plastic cups. A third brought plastic utensils. At the end of the night, we had a good four or five bags of trash which was an amount of waste that didn’t set well with me. On top of that, the cost of all those single use items added up. It wasn’t cheap. I decided there was a better way.

Eco-Friendly Choices Can Actually Save You Save a Little Extra Money

I found inexpensive wine glasses, simple metal silverware, and washable plates. The next time I had 25 people over for a potluck dinner we only made a half bag of trash. Everything else could be recycled or washed and reused. Think this sounds expensive or complex? Here are a few easy ways that you can make clean up a snap and the process affordable.

1. Give Guests an Option to Contribute If They Don’t Have Time to Cook

Ask people who don’t enjoy cooking to bring inexpensive glassware, reusable plates, or cheap silverware instead of bringing food. Have them spend no more than what they would on a dish they would otherwise bring. Their cost is the same, they don’t feel pressured to cook, and they help you build a collection of reusable entertaining gear that will immediately start cutting back the need of disposable dish-ware.

My grandmother taught me that using washable table clothes and fun decor means you don’t have to buy everything over year after year.

2. Time Your Dishwasher to Make Clean Up Faster

Use your dishwasher. It takes far less energy and water to run a dishwasher than it does to wash everything by hand. Two to three hours before your event ends take 15 minutes and grab all the plates and glasses that your guests have finished up. Load up your dishwasher and run it. As your dinner ends that first load will be done. Empty the first load and add in the second. In my experience two dishwasher loads will cover a potluck dinner for 30-40 people; far more than most people would assume.

3. Make It Easy for Your Guests to Recycle

Make it easy to recycle. Mark a trash can as recycling. Most people are used to this and will gladly separate garbage from recyclables; and if you add one more step of a spot for dirty dishes, then you will have most guests cleaning up from themselves as they go, leaving you less to clean up!

In all, I would estimate that using washable and reusable dinnerware adds about 30 minutes to total clean up time. For that extra 30 minutes you save the cost of all those disposables making the event cheaper for you. But even more, you’ve upgraded your event. Afterall, you’re serving wine in a wineglass and not a plastic cup. Your guests will notice and remember. That’s a win-win! Hopefully this helps in making your 4th of July get together a little more eco-friendly!