Grace’s Birthday Party Part Two (featuring Glad’s One Bag Challenge & a giveaway)

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This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.

We are more eco-conscious than most families. We use reusable dishes in lieu of paper plates or plastic silverware and cups. We compost all of our plant-based waste, and we grow worms in our basement.

Our motives are partly cost and partly environmental. Reusable products cost a little more at the beginning, but offer tremendous savings over disposable alternatives. More than that, though, reusable products leach fewer chemicals into our food. Most of all,  reusable products allow me to preserve our beautiful world for Grace and Allie’s children.

And also? There’s no better plant food than worm castings (that’s a fancy word for poop).

After the Build-A-Bear Workshop part of Grace’s birthday party, we moved the group to the mall’s food court for cake, ice cream, and playing.

I had agreed to participate in Glad’s One Bag Challenge – clean up the party using just one Glad trash bag – ahead of time, so I had awesome compostable plates, bowls, napkins, cups, and flatware (you’ll be able to win your own below).

I marveled at the plastic-like cups and flatware. I don’t know how they make those compostable. It’s amazing.

At the party, we ate and drank and visited, and the kids played.

Well, all of the kids except Allie played. She ate and drank with glee.

We didn’t tell anyone about the One Bag Challenge until the party had started, but all of the guests used reusable wrappings. Nana wrapped her packages partly in a pretty beach towel. Grace’s friends used pretty gift bags that Grace brought home to play with. There were a couple of small pieces of wrapping paper, but no other trash from gifts.

When the merry making was over and all the guests had gone, we had one whole cake left (but we brought it home to eat later – no trash). There were lots of empty plates and bowls and napkins, a couple of drink containers, and some gift wrapping and packaging.

That’s it.

There had been 16 guests including the kids, but there was very little trash. It’s just how we roll.

That’s the sum total of our party waste. Did we succeed in getting it all into one bag?

Yes!

Joe said his cleaning up skills allowed us to get everything in one bag, but really, we could have cleaned up 4 parties with our Glad bag.

Almost all of that trash came home and went into our compost pile. We recycled the plastic and glass bottles. The only things that ended up out at the curb (in our Glad bag, of course) were the wrappings and packaging from toys. Because I’d made the cakes, they were on stoneware platters and made no trash at all.

Glad Trash Bags

We’ve been Glad users for years. I started buying Glad bags back when I was single. I liked them because they stretch without breaking, and I could stuff a lot of trash in before I had to change the bag.

I liked the company before joining this campaign, but I like it even better now. I really appreciate that a trash company – a company that makes money from people throwing stuff away – is encouraging consumers to reduce their waste.

Plus, with its latest stronger with less plastic trash bags, compostable kitchen bags, recycling bags and more, Glad has helped save over 6.5 million pounds of plastic per year, the equivalent of keeping more than 140 million extra trash bags out of landfills each year.

It’s refreshing to know that preserving the world for our kids’ kids is as important to them as it is to me.

Win a Glad One Bag Kit!

Glad is providing me with a Glad One Bag Kit to give away to one luckyFeels Like Home reader! The kit contains a reusable picnic basket, tote bag, compostable plates, bowls, cups, and flatware, a soy candle, and more.

To be entered for a chance to win, leave a comment explaining how you are reducing the trash you send to landfills.

You may receive two (2) total entries from the following entry methods:

• Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post.
• Tweet about this promotion including @TaraZiegmont and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post.

No duplicate comments. This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older.

Winners will be selected via random draw (using a plugin called And the Winner Is) and will be notified by e-mail. Winner will have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

Good luck! This sweepstakes runs from 6/15/12 – 6/21/12.

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Glad and received a One Bag kit to facilitate my review, a kit to give away, and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.

© 2012, Tara Ziegmont. All rights reserved.

Tagged as: birthday party, green living, trash

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