No birthday is complete without food and cake.  If you’re planning on dishing it onto disposable plates, wait.  Green options abound.  Green… and cheap.  So lets dive into some different solutions right here in the next segment of our Green Birthday Guide now that the green invitations are sent, shall we?

Plates and cups

1. Use real dishes.  I know that’s pretty obvious.  It’s just so cheap, though.  Martin did the math.  It costs us 25 cents in electricity use to run our dishwasher.  Utilities in Germany are 3x higher than the US, so imagine your savings.  Cheaper than a pack of disposables, no?

2. Try Preserve plates and cups.   Made from 100% recycled plastic, these guys are a great in-between when you don’t want to use your real dishes and hate the one-time use of disposables.  Preserve plates and cups are durable enough to survive the dishwasher so you can keep reusing them.  If you simply must ditch ‘em, they’re #5 plastic.  Snag them at Amazon.

3.  Buy recycled paper products.  If you have to turn to the one-use items, try to spare the virgin trees.  Most paper dishes contain no recycled materials, yet companies like Seventh Generation offer 100% recycled plates.  Read the packaging for specifics on each product.  If it says “made with recycled materials”, that’s not quite enough.  They should tell you just how much… lest we assume 1% so they can add that emphasis on recycled content and mislead us.

Silverware

1. Get fancy with the real stuff.  I’ll never forget the day my grandma turned 90.  We were taking a pottery class, and she decided that she wanted to bring a birthday cake (she didn’t know my dad and I were making cupcakes).  My grandma did not want to drive to the store to get plastic silverware.  I know what you’re thinking: a 90-year-old driving?  Anyway, to save an extra drive and cost, she packed up her silver and brought it to our class in an old plastic bag.  Real silver!  And no waste.  I dished out a big birthday kiss for that one.

2. Plan finger food.  Did you spot above that I made cupcakes instead of cake?  No silverware needed.  Simple little adjustments in your food plans and poof – less waste.  Sneaky.

Martin wants to model how well this can work for you:

3. Snatch up biodegradable silverware.  Use and toss, knowing that this silverware won’t be sitting in a landfill for hundreds of years.  It breaks down.  Jaya products outperform most plastic silverware (which are petroleum-based), so you don’t end up using multiple forks if they keep breaking.   Amazon offers great deals on these fun fellas. 

Napkins

1.  Use real deals.  Cut up a piece of fabric into 12″ squares and sew around the edges for quick napkins that won’t fray.  You could even use old dresses or stained tablecloths.  Kids could decorate them. Or check out the handmade options available at etsy like these ones:

2. Scoop up a pack of recycled napkins.  Again, just check the recycled content.  Avoid a lot of unnecessary dyes and inks in your napkins.  I know – not so theme-oriented.  So much better for the environment, though.

Avoid, Avoid, Avoid!

Forbid Styrofoam.  Stomp your feet.  Kick and scream.  Just don’t use styrofoam.  That stuff takes millions of years to break down.  Just think:  if Jesus had gotten a piece of cake for his first birthday, and it was served on a styrofoam plate… his plate would still be sitting in our landfill.  I honestly don’t know why this stuff is legal dish-ware in so many developed countries.

So what do you say we dig in?  If there’s anything you’d add to this list, please let us know in the comments.  You all think of so many creative things, and I eat them up.  Right after this:

(Images from Amazon, etsy, and Flickr)