Serving Up Sustainability

As you plan your holiday table this year, make this a festive time for your guests while you raise a glass of red to a green planet.

Bring the elegance of fine bistro dining to your table with crisp European linen napkins made entirely of organic fibres. If earthy eclectic is more your style, complement your holiday meal with the rich colour and texture of hemp placemats and tablecloths.

Add instant warmth and intimacy to even the most spirited gatherings with the gorgeous glow of pure beeswax candles. Burning beeswax releases feel-good negative ions into your home, which may just be the secret to maintaining family harmony throughout the holiday meal!

Unique serving trays from Urban Tree Salvage are the perfect complement to your culinary offerings, guaranteed to garner admiration and inspire conversation. When local trees are felled due to damage or disease, these skilled artisans reclaim the wood to create one-of-a-kind home accessories and furniture from this valuable resource.

Make room on your holiday table for serving bowls, trays, and utensils made from bamboo, another remarkable alternative to old-growth forest products. Enjoy guilt-free indulgence in the lustrous grain and luxurious texture of the world’s fastest growing plant.

If you have chosen to use disposables, look beyond Styrofoam to more sustainable options such as biodegradable plates, bowls, and cups made from agricultural fibre or single-use bamboo veneerware. If you are using paper products, use those with the highest postconsumer recycled content.

If you want to dress up your holiday table with small dinnertime gifts, can the Christmas crackers and give your guests something they’ll really want to take home at the end of the meal. Tiny reusable gift bags can be filled with true treasures such as organic vegetable seeds, handmade soaps, or homemade cookies. Your meal will still end with a bang, without filling the garbage with nonrecyclable foil and plastic.

Before you even begin your meal, start by thinking about the end of it. If your guests will be clearing their own plates, clearly mark containers for compostables, recyclables, and true garbage. North Americans create 25 percent more garbage over the holiday season, but with a little planning, you can reduce your landfill contributions significantly.

Sources

• linens: Rawganique rawganique.com
• candles: Philoxia philoxia.com, Healthy Choice Candles healthychoicecandles.com
• serving trays: Urban Tree Salvage urbantreesalvage.com
• serving bowls and veneerware: Bambu bambuhome.com
• biodegradable dinnerware: Grassroots grassrootsstore.com
• recycled paper: Cascades cascades.com and Seventh Generation seventhgeneration.com