Thanksgiving's Sustainable Spin
Image from UnSplash by SJ Baren
A few weeks before thanksgiving I started thinking ways I could reduce waste as I hosted ten people at my house. A few of the ideas I had time to implement, others I hope to introduce into next years festivities, and some I have been doing for years now. The actions ranged from using every part of the turkey to pulling out my old compost bags compost more than my backyard compost bin allows. My thought was with so many extra people I could cut down quite a bit on the waste that left my house.
Starting with the compost bag. If you read my previous post on creating a backyard compost bin you know that am selective on what goes into the bin to avoid a swarm of pests. Since I knew the turkey carcass, napkins, butter wrappers, and some of the food scraps could not go into my bin I pulled out a large compost bag from my Minneapolis days of composing and set up a trash can in the kitchen for all these items. It is really easy to see the amount of waste that was diverted from the landfill and instead will help create rich soil. I filled the compost bag nearly full and my normal garbage bag is still only half full after all the food prep and the big meal.
My second effort is one I have been doing for a few years now. I use every part of the turkey in some manner. My dogs especially appreciate this approach. When I make the turkey, I boil the heart, liver, and neck, using the resulting broth to make the gravy. The actual meat gets cut up and fed to my two dogs. After the meal is finished and as much good meat as possible is saved, the less desirable pieces are saved for my dogs and the carcass is boiled to make broth. This year I was able to can nearly 20 pints of broth to use throughout the year. Once again, the edible scraps that came off during the boiling process went to my very appreciative dogs. The last of the bones were put into the compost bag.
A third method of reducing waste was to make all the dishes from scratch. By purchasing real sweet potatoes and boiling them or making my own pie crusts I avoided all the extra aluminum cans in my recycling bin. I did end up with two cans to make the pumpkin pie, but maybe next year I will buy a pumpkin and roast my own filling. I did fall back on my energy bag, knowing I could recycle the small plastic bags the veggies came home in, but have resolved to pick up some reusable cotton bags next time I am at Exist Green. Often though, I avoid using bags altogether if I have just a few heads of garlic or one or two potatoes. I figure they don’t need a special bag since its only a few items that fit onto the checkout scanner just fine.
Last, and an easy one to do, I used my china and silver for the meal instead of plastic plates and silverware which would have been easier to clean up. I never really have the opportunity to use my great grandmothers china, so when I host a large gathering I love to pull it out to use. I could have bought compostable plates and silverware, but this reduced the amount of waste altogether, whether it was going to a compost pile or the landfill. It did mean using a lot more water to clean the dishes, but water would have been used to make the compostable plates which would have come wrapped in plastic, so I figured it evened out.
What I was unable to get ready for this thanksgiving were napkins. I had thought about finding some old fabric and turning them into napkins, but to do that I would need to hunt down some fabric, learn to sew, get my old sewing machine in working order, and then actually sew the napkins. I did not want to just go out and buy napkins because that defeats the purpose of not creating any new waste. Despite this, having the compost bag (that I need to take up to Exist Green later today) was great because all the napkins will go towards creating good compost.
One other more sustainable change I would like to make for next year is to bake my own bread for the stuffing. As mentioned above, almost every part of the meal I made was from scratch, except the bread. I bake my own bread for sandwiches (there’s one rising on the counter right now for making leftover turkey sandwiches), but ran out of time this year due to work travel and could not get two loaves baked in time to dry out. Instead I grabbed a few loaves at the store, knowing I could just toss the plastic bags into the energy bag instead of the garbage.
One last sustainable Thanksgiving holiday change I easily made was avoiding any Black Friday shopping. I am trying to reduce the amount of new products I purchase and find ways to reuse what I have or buy used. Besides, I hate shopping and only go with friends or family as a social outing. It also seems counter productive to go out and buy something just because it is on sale. I would rather wait until I really need the item to make the purchase and hope that I can find what I need at a second hand store, through Next Door or Facebook Market Place, or if its summer, a garage sale. So while it may seem like a lot of small changes, I feel like I made a good contribution to reducing waste this thanksgiving and hope I passed along a few ideas for others to use when hosting friends and family for a large meal.
