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Setting the Holiday Table

This season, make your table as green as your tree. Create a memorable centerpiece, choose more sustainable dishes, find the perfect wine and reduce the waste so that you can enjoy the feast, family and friends even more.

Glasses filled with holiday cheer are cheerier when they're not plastic. Rather than using disposable cups and dishes, buy a couple sets of glasses and silverware and store them for your next gathering. Thrift stores and restaurant supply companies are great places to find inexpensive dishes. If your party is big or storage is limited, consider renting dishes from a party planner or rental company.

If you must use disposable dishes, skip the plastic in favor of post-consumer recycled paper or dishes made from bagasse, sugarcane waste. Agricultural waste has never been sweeter than when it's been transformed into tableware! There are also disposable dishes available made from corn starch and potatoes. While all of these biobased plastics are made from renewable sources, they won't biodegrade anytime soon in your local landfill, they're only 100% biodegradable when they're properly disposed of in a commercial composting facility.

Select paper napkins with high post-consumer recycled content. If every household in the United States replaced just one package of virgin fiber napkins with 100% recycled ones, we'd save one million trees. Look for paper products that are labeled totally chlorine-free (TCF) or processed chlorine-free (PCF). The chlorine used in the bleaching process is highly toxic and contributes to air and water pollution. Download and print out our list of the best and worst brands so you don't have to squint at the label in the grocery store.

Create a centerpiece with local greenery or fruit rather than imported flowers which are often laden with pesticides and flown across continents. Get creative with ornaments, pine cones or interesting, colorful objects displayed in a clear glass vase or bowl. And when dining by candlelight, choose candles made from beeswax or soy wax and other pure vegetable waxes. Paraffin candles, a petroleum product, can emit toxins and soot and may aggravate allergies.

For dinner, serve traditional seasonal foods (preferably bought from a local farmer). To learn more about the benefits of fresh, local food, read last month's tips on better food closer to home.

Try toasting with a local wine this year. For those who are far from California, you'll be happy to hear that a wine shipped by boat from France may not be any worse -- emissions-wise -- than a wine flown to the East Coast from California. That's worth drinking to!


Download our guide to home tissue products.	Use real dishes rather than disposables. If you must use disposables, buy dishes made of post-consumer recycled paper or bagasse.	Want to reduce your waste even further? Start composting!