Since Thanksgiving is one of the most important holidays of the year, it is just natural that people would like to make the best of it, and sometimes they end up doing more harm than good… to the planet. Although you want only the best, you can achieve it in the green way too.
Going local and seasonal
Since the local markets are much evolved in all parts of the country, there is no reason for you not to keep the money in your local economy. There are some fruits and vegetables that are known to have a lot of pesticide residue and in case of these products you should buy the organic counterparts. Choose farm grown fruits and veggies and try keeping close to the tradition so you will make sure you get quality supplies for your Thanksgiving table.
Potluck
The best thing about this solution is that you can have the same amount of food on the table, but it won’t cost as much as the traditional dinners. In case you collect a certain amount of money from everybody will make the other people involved as well, and people will have something to discuss at the table.
Leftovers
In case of the big dinners it is common to have a lot of leftovers, and you should make some plans for these as well. Most probably after a while you will be sick of turkey sandwich, and this is why it might be a good idea to look for alternative recipes involving turkey, like turkey soup. It would be a pity to throw away the food.
Cleaning
In case you are the host, for sure you will have a lot of dishes to clean after the guests are gone. To be efficient you should make sure that you load the dishwasher. This method is a lot more efficient than washing all the dishes by hand. Nonetheless before you put the dishes in the dishwasher, scrape the food off them, so that you won’t have to waste water on pre-rinsing.
You shouldn’t have complicated cycles with the dishwasher, and don’t use the drying function either; let air do that for you so that you can make more economies regarding energy.
There is a lot you could do to be green in this busy period of the year. You just have to keep in mind not to let anything go to waste.
