Green and healthy tip 1: Old McDonald has a booth, E-I-E-I-O
Buy local! The fourth is perfectly positioned on Sunday this year, so there's no excuse not to patronize your nearest farmers market for the freshest fruits and veggies for your weekend parties.
Green and healthy tip 2: BYO…Glassware
Getting a keg for your 4th of July celebration? Forget those plastic cups! Ask your guests to bring their favorite beer mugs, or even wine glasses, if that's what you'll be serving. Not only will guests avoid losing track of their drinks by using their own familiar glassware--a surety after a few--but you'll avoid making unnecessary waste. And, interesting pieces can spark conversation if your guests don't know each other.
Green and healthy tip 3: The more the merrier!
Do you know several people throwing parties? Why not combine them? A larger group will use fewer resources, less electricity, waste less food, and spew less carbon from grilling than two separate parties. The more the merrier, for you and our planet.
Green and healthy tip 4: Mother Earth doesn't want your dirty dishes.
If you must use disposable dinnerware, buy biodegradable, compostable, or recyclable products. Paper dinnerware cannot be recycled and if it's bleached white, it shouldn't be composted. While you can recycle plastic dinnerware, it needs to be clean, so that will require washing dishes. Whyt not just bust out your regular dishes?
Green and healthy tip 5: Don't be a pyro.
Fireworks are fun, but the smoke is toxic, consisting of sulfur compounds, heavy metals, toxic chemicals and other gases, like ozone. Because people (and kids) use them at ground level, inhaling the smoke is a certainty. Instead, move your party to a public fireworks display, or seek out low-smoke fireworks, made with higher levels of nitrogen. Sometimes called "green fireworks", they're safer, but still pollute. If you must celebrate your freedom with fire, have fun, but there's no need to go overboard.
General tip: Have fun, be safe, and have a happy 4th!
Image: Yuka Yoneda, Inhabitat.com
