Setting an eco-friendly holiday table
December 15, 2007
From cutlery to the actual table guests will gather around, look for sustainable alternatives when planning your holiday feasts this year. With a little ingenuity and planning, show family and friends how to throw a party in eco-friendly style.
Need for a “new” table to accommodate those third cousins from Petawawa? Check out Vancouver’s Industrial Artifacts for innovative and functional furniture made from waste or used goods. Most of their products are constructed of 90-95% recycled materials. For more budget-friendly buys, IKEA uses wood from well-managed tree farms rather than natural forests and uses formaldehyde-free finishes.
If you’re short of forks and knives, pick up a few sets of bamboo utensils from Grassroots in Toronto. Bamboo is one of the earth’s most sustainable crops, harvested from controlled stands with an astounding growth cycle of three to five years. Aspenware also makes environmental friendly cutlery. WUN (Wooden Utensils Naturally), developed by three shop teachers from Nelson, BC, are a beautiful, all-natural alternative to adding to the millions of plastic forks, knives and spoons that end up in landfills every year after parties and picnics. Not only does Aspenware make a biodegradable product from a renewal resource harvested on a small scale, they try to optimize the use of traditionally overlooked aspen and birch harvested using good forestry practices or purchasing from already harvested materials. The company cranks out 30 000 pieces of cutlery per day using hydroelectric power with minimal carbon emissions. Lightly coated with non-toxic confectioner’s glaze, the pieces hardly seem disposable.
Seventh Generation napkins made from 100% recycled (90% post-consumer) unbleached fibre are a planet-friendly alternative if organic cotton or bamboo serviettes are not an option.
Need more stemware? Rent wine and highball glasses! Alternatively, Toronto’s Core Sales Inc. sells biodegradable and compostable clear plastic cups made from renewable crops such as corn.
If you don’t have enough ceramic dishware, try Stalk Market plates and bowls produced from bagasse, a fibre byproduct of the sugar refining process. Microwavable, freezer-safe and cut-resistant, products made from bagasse are virtually unlimited and help eliminate dependence on traditional petroleum materials in disposable tableware.
Dine by candlelight and reduce the ecological footprint of your organic turkey dinner, but choose soy-based candles. Soy wax is a plant-based wax made from the oil of soybeans (as opposed to petroleum in conventional paraffin candles) and is non-toxic and non-carcinogenic. Soy burns with less soot and at a cooler temperature than paraffin, making it last longer. And if you buy Toronto’s LuminEssent red soy candles before December 30, a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Canadian AIDS Society.
For eco-friendly table decorations, look for inspiration in the great outdoors with organic trim from cedar boughs, pinecones, holly, mistletoe and colourful bowls of fruit. Not only are they biodegradable, they’re locally sourced and smell wonderful.
When it comes to cleaning up, Biobag corn-based plastic and compostable garbage bags hold all of your biodegradable dinnerware. Biobags will degrade in 10 to 45 days, depending on the compost method used, and are a planet-friendly solution to paper and polyethylene bags.
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