Reducing Waste During Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving is my first since beginning my zero waste journey. For the past three years we have hosted Thanksgiving at our home outside of Dallas.  This year we hosted my parents, both my brothers, and their significant others along with my family of four.  Everyone stayed for an extended period of time, my parents stayed almost two weeks!  It is such a wonderful time of year to reunite since we all live plane rides away in different states.  Our holiday was full of joy, game nights, outdoor time, group bowling, and even group yoga at my nearby studio.  While this was not a waste free holiday, it was a huge improvement from past years. For me it is not about perfection as I can only control me and I was only 1 person out of a group of 10 people.  But I have noticed others enjoying some of the switches we have made in our home.  #progressoverperfection

A few techniques we reduced waste this year included

• Eating more plant-based sides.

• Using compostable decor including pumpkins, acorns (from our local park), and fresh rosemary (from our garden) in mason jars

• Omitting any single-use items (i.e. no plastic forks, plates, cups etc.).

• Using cloth towels for clean up and a homemade all-purpose spray.

• Composting all plant-based food scraps and food soiled paper.

• Buying many ingredients from the bulk bins using reusable bags

• Making almost everything from scratch including dairy-free corn bread and homemade bread

• Opting for glass containers over plastic for items such as olive oil and grape seed oil

• Opting for cans of broth instead of cartons for those recipes that called for broth.

• Using cloth napkins that were gifted to me from Myrtlewood (which were super soft and looked great on the table).

• Saving turkey bones to make turkey soup the next day.

How have you reduced waster over Thanksgiving or other holidays?  For me focusing less on material items and more on "being" has gone hand in hand with my zero waste efforts.  Hope you had a great Holiday! I'd love to hear your suggestions on future blog post requests!