The King’s coronation: love parties, hate waste

Communities across Somerset will come together to celebrate the Coronation

Introduction

Between Saturday 6 May and Monday 8 May communities across Somerset will come together to celebrate the Coronation of His Majesty The King and Her Majesty The Queen Consort.

We love parties but we hate waste, so anyone planning an event – be it a street party, big community event or just a family get together – is asked to reuse and recycle wherever possible .

Here are some top tips to help you host a coronation party, that wastes less and recycles more.

Know your collection days

We do not usually collect on Bank Holidays, but we are collecting on Bank Holiday Monday, 1 May, and collections will be on the normal scheduled day for the rest of that week.

But, there will be no collections on the extra Bank Holiday, Monday 8 May. Collections will be one day later for the rest of that week, including collections that would usually take place on Friday 12 May taking place on Saturday 13 May.

All 16 recycling sites will be open at the weekend (9am to 4pm). And, if opening Mondays is part of their normal opening pattern, they will be open on both Bank Holiday Mondays (1 May and 8 May), from 9am to 6pm.

Say no to single use

Recycling is great, but reducing and reusing is even better so try and avoid single-use items wherever possible. If you do end up with anything you no longer need when your event is done, donate it to a charity shop or offer on Freegle, Freecycle or local Facebook groups.

Cutlery, crockery, cups and glasses:
Avoid paper plates and single use plastic cutlery, cups and bottles. Ask people to bring their own from home and take it back with them. Buy crockery cheap from a charity shop and give it back afterwards so it can be sold on again.

Tablecloths:
Don’t buy new, use old sheets, blankets or throws which can be washed and used again. Ask friends or family if they have spare ones or that they could lend to you for the day,

Chairs, tables gazebos:
If it is a small event, ask people to bring their own chairs and take them home after. See if you can borrow tables and gazebos if you have not got your own.

Consider hiring your events kit:
Various outlets hire out party kits of cutlery, crockery, tables chairs etc and often they will deliver and pick up. Cheaper and better for the planet.

We do not endorse any businesses and suggest you have a good search online, but below are links to just a few examples.

Decorations
You may want a few lasting souvenirs of the momentous day, but avoid the temptation to buy one-off, plastic decorations that will only end up being thrown away. If you do buy decorations, pick something you can use again either yourself or pass on to somebody else to use another time.

Have a go at making your own decorations for your party or event. It will save you money and is often a change to reuse things you already have.

That could be turning empty jam jars into tealights, or creating Coronation vases by just decorating jars with old wrapping paper.

Making your own bunting can be easy. You can use old clothes or fabric for reusable bunting.

If you want recyclable coronation bunting, start saving pictures from magazines to make paper bunting triangles. It’s a simple idea to get the kids involved.

Use a hole punch and tie to some string or ribbon. Remove the paper triangles from the string or ribbon and put the paper in the black recycling box. Keep the string or ribbon to reuse for the next event.

Reduce food waste

Reducing your food waste is one of the best ways of cutting your carbon footprint. If you are hosting any kind of get together with food then it really pays to plan well ahead.

Depending on the size of the event, it can be handy to do this planning through a WhatsApp chat or Facebook.

Know your audience:
It is easy to over cater unless you have a good idea of how many people are coming, so make sure you have an accurate headcount. Make sure you know what people want to eat (and cannot eat – always be aware of allergies), so you don’t end up having some things left untouched.

Bring your own:
Ask people to bring a homemade dish. It will save you cash and avoids unnecessary packaging. Ask what people are planning to bring to avoid doubling up on things.

Some top catering tips if you are hosting a party with food:

  • Check for food allergies or intolerances and cater accordingly, labelling food if needed.
  • Ask people to bring reusable containers to take home leftovers (but remember, food left out in the hot sun all day will not be safe to eat later).
  • Take home any leftover foods no longer safe to eat and recycle in your food waste bin.
  • Keep chilled items cool – only put these out for your buffet or picnic when they are needed.
  • Check Food hygiene for consumers | Food Standards Agency for food safety advice.

Recipe ideas:

The Love Food Hate Waste website lovefoodhatewaste.com is a brilliant source of information and ideas for cutting your food waste.

This includes all kinds of recipes for making use of ingredients you already have in your fridge, freezer or store cupboards, such as:

If you have a Community Fridge in your area, check it out. They offer surplus food from suppliers within the community for free, saving you money and preventing good food going to waste. You can “help yourself to what’s on the shelf”:

The type and quantity of food varies daily at Community Fridges depending on surplus from the suppliers.

No community fridge nearby? There are apps to help you find surplus/reduced food for quick sale, such as Too Good To Go and Olio.

Avoid balloon and sky lantern releases

They create litter that can be harmful to wildlife. For ideas about more wildlife-friendly alternatives visit https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/litter/balloon-and-sky-lantern-alternatives

Recycle more

Do your best to recycle as much of the waste as possible.

Make collection points highly visible for returning reusable items or recycling.

Nominate people to be responsible for making sure recycling is collected and disposed of correctly.

Make sure you know everything that can be recycled in your weekly kerbside collections.

Disposing of recycling and refuse

  • Commercial events/large community events: The usual requirements remain. Organisers are responsible for disposing of waste appropriately. Depending on scale, they may need to organise and pay for a private collection.
  • Non-commercial/small community events/parties: Organisers should take responsibility for ensuring that arrangements are in place to collect and dispose of waste, recycling as much as possible.
  • Depending on the scale of the event and the waste, you could:
  • ask attendees to keep hold of their own waste and take it home.
  • put the waste through household kerbside collections. Depending on quantities, you may wish to do this over two weeks. The usual rules will apply in terms of what recycling and refuse will be collected – refuse bin lids must be closed and side waste will not be collected. Recycling should only be presented in the boxes and food waste bins provided.
  • Take waste to one of our recycling sites, perhaps sharing the load between several people if needed. Please be aware that you will need a permit if you are bringing waste in certain vehicles (e.g. – vans, pick-ups up to 3.5 tonnes in weight, single axle trailers up to three metre floor length) so please check. You can check site opening days here.

Last reviewed: April 6, 2023 by James

Next review due: October 6, 2023

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