How does one go about making a New Year’s Eve party “green”? Aside from fragrant evergreen trimmings you may have trimming your mantle (and that mistletoe strategically hanging in the front hall) , consider some of these additional ways when preparing your eco-friendly New Year’s Eve. Not only will these ideas help you limit waste, but you may actually find some of them entertaining, as well as making your guests feel special.

1. Renting Party Supplies

Expecting more guests than champagne glasses you own?. Cups, tablecloths, flatware, and other assorted party items can be rented and returned. You won’t have to find a place to store your party things for the other 364 days of the year, and you won’t have to wash a dish! Not to mention having to store all that extra stuff in your attic.

2. If you must go with disposable items…

Try to get biodegradable  tablecloths, or get ones made from recycled materials. Today you can even find biodegradable flatware which will compost much quicker than plastic.

3. Ask your guests about their green resolutions

One of the fun things about the New Year is to make resolutions. Skip the paper lists and use a chalk board or dry erase board, and let guests come up with their energy-saving resolutions for the upcoming year. You could make it into a party game by having the guests draw or illustrate their green resolutions, and having everyone guess what they are trying to convey (think Pictionary).

4. Decorate using recyclables

Some really fun decorations can be made with ordinary items. Cut colorful magazines into strips, make each strip into a loop, and fasten them together in a chain. Use old wine or other bottles for candle holders. Square carpet samples from the local DIY store make great coasters. And with a hole punch and some leftover holiday wrapping paper, you can make some great confetti.

5. Make a budget

It is so easy (and tempting) to over-buy food and supplies when you are caught up in the fun and excitement of party planning. Still, it’s good to get an accurate head count and buy food (locally grown and/or organic if possible) accordingly. And don’t spend on things that are not going to be noticed, like fancy toothpicks, or that can be broken easily, like delicate glass tumblers. It’s also not a faux pas to ask your friends to bring their own bubbly.

6. Make it late

Save on food costs by having your party late in the day. After 8pm, hors d’oeuvres are all you need, or desserts.

7.  Serve your specialty “home brewed bottled water” in the HtruO eco-friendly stainless steel bottles.

Keeping water on hand is always a good idea, and what better way to show your support for green by handing out stainless steel reusable water containers bottled specially with your own filtered water.

One of the most important things about having a green New Year’s party – besides cutting down on waste and what that means for the future of the planet – is that it serves as a reminder that friends and family are what matter, not excessive food, decorations, and so forth. We can use these difficult economic times to get back to what really matters. Going green is a great way to do that.

Stainless Steel Water Bottle

The health & beauty benefits of drinking plenty of water and the environmental benefits of reducing your carbon footprint at this point should be undeniable. Your body needs water! Lacking proper hydration leads to your body not being able to function efficiently. Being dehydrated can cause you to feel tired and if you become anymore dehydrated you begin putting your health at serious risk. Even more important than drinking water, however, is drinking clean chlorine-free water!

In order to drink the highest quality water many of us rush out to the nearest store and buy cases of plastic bottled water. Many people are opposed to drinking tap water because they’re afraid or even disgusted with tap water. Little do these plastic bottle water drinking people know but the majority of bottled water is simply tap water with better marketing. If it wasn’t enough that we’re grossly overcharged for something that we all need to live, plastic bottles are destroying both our planet and many, many lives.

As a society we’re quickly becoming aware of the long-term dangers of climate change but each year we use approximately 18 million barrels of oil to ship water across the country. In fact, the amount of oil it takes to make only one plastic water bottle would fill that same plastic bottle one third of the way the top. This makes no sense.

If the fact that bottled water requires an obscene amount of fossil fuel in order to manufacture and distribute wasn’t enough, at any given time, there are 3.5 million tons of plastic floating around in our oceans. Marine life eats this trash and the poisons travel up the food-chain ending up in humans, causing a host of life-changing illnesses. Combine the poisons and carcinogens that we’re consuming because of plastic bottles littering our oceans with the high number of toxic chemicals (arsenic, industrial solvents and even radioactive chemicals) that plastic bottles leach into our water and we have a very, very serious health issue.

Two of the biggest chemicals to watch out for are Bisphenol A (BPA) and Phthalates. These two chemicals are both found in many plastic bottles and even in some reusable plastic water bottles or metal water bottles that have plastic interiors. Phthalates and BPA are known as “endocrine disruptors” because they mimic the body’s hormones. Some studies suggest that these toxic and very widespread chemicals are a cause of breast and uterine cancer in women, decreased testosterone levels in men, and can be very harmful to young children. In laboratory tests Phthalates & Bisphenol A have both been shown to cause reproductive and neurological damage in infants.

The best solution to this multi-layered problem is to install a whole house water filter system today, make sure that everyone in your household has a reusable and safe stainless steel water bottle, like the HtruO 2 Go and to bottle your own water!

Stainless steel water bottles, like the HtruO 2 Go, are the smartest choice because they don’t leach any harmful chemicals into your water. This means that your water will taste great, smell great and will be great for you!