We serve about 500 lutefisk lovers at this event. We just built a new Great Hall but have not finished the kitchen with a dishwasher so had to use disposable serving ware. Out goal was to make all trash on table compostable and we used real silverware because that was manageable to wash.
Tried to get local and organic but no organic lutefisk and certainly not local. We bought bulk food when possible. This saved on waste.
We had 21 large bages of waste. Only 1 bag was trash, the rest was compostable. We had some jars and cardboard that was recycled. This was amazing: 1 bag of trash for the entire event!
Washing silverware is not a big deal. We used glass/ceramic cups/glasses until they ran out and we couldn't keep up , then switched to compostable cups. Note: the corn based cups didn't work with warm rommegrot -they melted. We switched to a paper cup.
We placed centerpiece cards on the table educating people why we were using corn based plates/bowls/cups. They seemed to be very OK with us going green for this event. Certainly real plates, etc. would have been nicer but not practical for our venue. I think a lot of people were impressed that if an event that large could go green, they could do it in their daily lives.
The great thing is that our church has adopted many green ways since instituting these changes in one event. We now do organics recycling all the time, have reduced the purchase of bottled beverages, recycling bins are everywhere. A key message for church goers is that we are all called to be stewards of the earth so this is enough reason to be green.
Getting the adults to sort their organics. Kids get it readily because they do it at school. The adults seem to have a harder time learning.
Really well.
Yes
If you’ve hosted a green event, we want to hear from you! Answer a few questions, and share your experience with other event planners that are looking to go green. Tell us about your green event.
