Reducing Waste at Your Child's Birthday Bash

Parents of young children would be all too familiar with the yearly ritual of organising a birthday party. The planning that begins at least three weeks beforehand, preparing the guest list, bulk-buying return gifts, deciding on the cake (I loved Barbie-themed cakes when I was a kid), organising party games (even tougher if the birthday child wants something different from the usual passing-the-parcel)... Jeez, I'm feeling nostalgic now!

But at the end of the party, we're left with a huge pile of waste to contend with. Gift wrap is mostly non-recyclable. Disposable cutlery can't be recycled either — even paper ones are rendered non-recyclable on being contaminated with food. So where do they wind up? In the dreaded landfill.

Putting together a low-waste birthday party that the kids would love without turning it into a teachable moment for them seems like a herculean task, but it's not. You need only make a few small changes to what you already do. 

I'll get you started with some simple and executable ideas, and you can take it from there. 

Let's begin with the party invites...

• Skip the paper invites altogether — just a phone call would suffice. An e-invite would be great too! If your child is old enough, get them to design it. I use the Canva app for the bulk of my design needs because it's simple and user-friendly. Back in the day, I used MS Word for my birthday invites.

• Be sure to get invitees to RSVP. By ordering/preparing food according to the number of people who show up, you can reduce food wastage.

For decor...

• The rubber balloons you buy by the packet and blow up are not recyclable, so steer clear of those. Instead, you can make paper chains to hang around the venue. You could use old newspapers and magazines, your kids' old artwork, gift wrap from parties through the ages (that you were unable to reuse for whatever reason), old calendars... There are lots of tutorials on the internet, but I'll get you started with two of varying difficulty. Enlist the kids' help in making them, they'll love it.

 

This one is ideal for younger children — it'll keep them busy for hours

Older children would like something a bit more complex, so they'd love this one.

• Try to reuse decorations as much as you can. If you have anything from previous years, use them over and over until they fall apart, just like Christmas ornaments. The likes of fabric bunting, banners, the paper chains I just talked about can all be carefully preserved to be used in the years to come. The key is to do away with one-and-done decorations as much as possible, and use everything to the max.

Fabric bunting can be used year after year.

For the food...

• Get the kids to bring their own cutlery and plates (and notify them at the time of inviting them). After they're done eating, simply wipe it clean, wrap it in newspaper and put it in their bag so they can wash it at home. Keep some of your own cutlery at hand should a child forget to bring their own, which is somewhat likely given that this is a relatively novel thing. 

Single-use cutlery is one of the biggest enemies of a low-waste lifestyle. I hate when they come along with my food delivery.

• If you don't like the idea of ordering food because of all the single-use plastic that comes with it, you can always prepare it yourself, but I know how daunting it is to cook for 30-odd hungry children. One way to get around it is to make it a potluck — ask the invitees to prepare and bring something to the party, along with their own crockery and cutlery of course.

• Speaking of food, let's talk about the cake. I'd have suggested that you make it at home, but I know only too well the excitement of choosing the theme of the cake, and the invitees are as thrilled about it as the birthday child. You could refuse the plastic knife that comes with it and if possible, bring your own box when you go to pick it up. The cake board that comes with it can be washed and stored for art projects or home repairs.

Another idea is to opt for themed cupcakes. You can easily pick them up in your own containers. The major problem, however, is that cake-cutting wouldn't be possible.

Return gifts...

Let me tell you a little secret — kids mostly go to birthday parties for the return gifts. Trust me, I was one of those kids as well. 

You want to pick out fun return gifts that kids are sure to use. As a general rule, do away with those flimsy plastic knick-knacks that fall apart within a month.  Here are some ideas for inspiration.

• Mark my words, kids love stationery. And these days there is such a wide variety of stationery available online and in stores. Handmade paper, seed pencils, paper pens, recycled paper notebooks, plantable colour pencils and organic crayons are only some of the vast array of planet-friendly stationery you could go for. Otherwise, even regular stationery is great. I almost always handed out some kind of stationery at my birthday parties when I was young, and they were used every time.

I made these collage notebooks myself, with old magazine pages. Talking of which, here's an idea — why not give out blank notebooks for the kids to decorate? It's a fun activity, and they can take the decorated notebooks home as return gifts.

• I hear about many people opting for potted plants as return gifts. While some people would love it, others like me struggle to keep a plant alive. So proceed with caution with this one. Though succulents can survive in the hands of people like me.

If you do hand out succulents, avoid the kind with spines on them.

• Foldable cutlery is easily available online and in camping gear stores. This would encourage kids to carry their own cutlery instead of using disposable ones.

I just love this cutlery set which you can carry around in your pocket or wallet

• Personal care products are sure to be appreciated and used, especially by older kids and teens. Handmade soaps, organic loofahs, bamboo towels and other such items are readily available.

• There are many NGOs that sell handmade products, and the proceeds from the sales go towards supporting their cause. You could buy return gifts from them.

The birthday presents...

I'll be honest, the thing about birthday bashes that stokes kids (including myself) the most is receiving presents, so it'll be nearly impossible to do away with them. If you suggest a no-gifts policy to your soon-to-be 6-year-old, nine times out of ten you'd be met with a high-pitched "I hate you!" and a sulky face. So here are some other ideas for you.

• When your child opens the presents, encourage them to take apart the wrapping carefully instead of ripping it open. Then you can preserve the wrapping to be used to pack other gifts in future, in craft, as coloured paper for school projects etc. I do this all the time. Salvage every bit of paper, you guys!

Old readers will remember this one — my stash of salvaged paper over the years. Nothing goes to waste.

• One of my readers in Canada told me about "toonie parties" (a toonie is a $2 coin in Canada), where instead of gifts, each guest brings a $2 coin, and that money is used to buy a single item of the child's choosing. Similarly in the US, the trend of "fiver parties" with $5 bills is taking off. So you can get each guest to bring along a ₹50 or 100 note in place of a gift.

• If you're comfortable, you could open a gift registry. Just bear in mind that this is not a thing in the Indian subcontinent. 

I hope these ideas make low-waste parties somewhat less daunting for you. Tell me what your birthday parties were like — my parents tell me that theirs were much simpler affairs, less wasteful and just as fun as ours. I'd love to hear about what you do to reduce waste at events. Comment down below about your victories, anecdotes, stories... I love hearing from all of you.