How to Have a “Zero Waste” Thanksgiving 🦃

Hey earth muffins! I am officially home to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family – and I am so excited! 🎉 Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays as I get to do two of my fave things: hang with my family and eat all day. 😂 Ever since starting my journey towards living zero waste, I have been writing posts about how to reduce waste on holidays (check out my Halloween, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day posts!)… In honor of this Thursday, I thought I would share some tips on how you can reduce waste this Thanksgiving!

~Avoid unnecessary packaging at the grocery store when you do your holiday shopping. I suggest checking out the bulk bins for some great savings or buying loose produce for your meal! You could even challenge yourself to make everything from scratch like the pumpkin puree for your pumpkin pie! If you have to buy something in packaging, choose glass or metal containers that can be easily recycled. 👍

~Have a vegetarian dinner. Turkey is such a classic for Thanksgiving, but you could always try having a meatless holiday feast! The meat industry is pretty terrible in terms of both sustainability and ethical practices, so avoiding turkey is a great way to share these beliefs. This is obviously not for everyone as I know my own family would never not have a bird, but maybe your family would be okay with it!

~Know how many people you are cooking for! While having some leftovers is a good thing, you don’t want to have so many leftovers that you end up throwing a lot away after a few days. 👎 Keeping serving sizes in mind is a great way to reduce food waste this Thanksgiving.

~Set up a designated compost bin and keep it nearby when cooking. When you are cooking this holiday, make sure to put all of the food scraps into a compost bin! This is especially great if you are preparing food for a good amount of people, as you will be shocked to see how much compost you have been throwing away all these years. After dinner you can put the compost into your own compost bin or have someone take it to theirs (or to drop off at a local composting company).

~Use “fancy” table settings. I’m talking the whole nine yards: fancy dishes, cloth tablecloths and napkins, nice silverware, etc. If you are hosting and don’t have enough supplies, ask you family and friends to bring some along! While you will then have to wash everything at the end of the night, you will be saving a ton of waste from heading to the landfill. Worth it!

~Plan what to do with the leftovers! After a couple of days after Thanksgiving my family definitely gets tired of the same leftovers… So make a plan on what you are going to do with the leftovers! You could freeze some turkey to put in soups, turn vegetable dishes into a casserole, etc. etc. By having a plan you will be less likely to just throw away the food after a few days. 🙂

How do you reduce waste on Thanksgiving?

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