Keep Britain Tidy Urges People to 'Go Green for the Queen' at Jubilee Street Parties

As the country prepares to come together to celebrate, Keep Britain Tidy is encouraging revellers to’ adopt a few eco-friendly tips to keep their party ‘Green for the Queen.’

The charity is urging everyone to be kinder to the environment while celebrating by aiming to create as little waste as possible, reusing and re-purposing wherever possible, and ensuring any party waste is, ideally, recyclable.

Keep Britain Tidy’s Chief Executive Allison Ogden-Newton, said:

“We’d like to echo the sentiments of people across the country in congratulating Her Majesty on her Platinum Jubilee.

“The Queen and many members of her family have made no secret of their passion for protecting our environment, preserving our woodland and wildlife and ensuring a sustainable future.

“With this in mind, as the country joins together to celebrate her reign, we are calling for people to be Green for the Queen as they stage their own Jubilee celebrations.”

There are many small changes you can make to ensure your street party or house celebration is environmentally friendly. Some suggestions include:

• Virtual invites are a very efficient way of inviting your guests and keeping them informed and save paper.
• Using real plates, cups and cutlery fitting for a Royal table is an easy way to immediately reduce party waste - cardboard, paper and plastic packaging all has a long-term impact on our planet.
• If for whatever reason you can only use disposable items, try to choose more sustainable options like bamboo or wood.
• Even better, avoid the need for plates or cutlery at all by opting to serve finger foods like sandwiches, muffins, cupcakes and bagels. Try to buy as little pre-packaged food as possible and serve drinks from jugs and poured into glass.
• If you have children involved and are worried about safety, use reusable plastic cups that can be used again and again
• Get crafty – why not have a go at making your own bunting from scraps of material, paper or old magazines instead of buying single-use plastic
• Avoid using balloons as these can ultimately litter the environment and harm our wildlife.

A Platinum jubilee is unique – so if guests love the idea of Royal dishes like Coronation chicken and the new Jubilee pudding now is the time to let them indulge!

But you can help make your party greener by balancing these dishes out with fresh seasonal fruits, veg and protein, and by keeping meat-based options to a minimum.

Reducing meat consumption helps protect biodiversity, reduces our use of resources like land, water and energy as well as cutting CO2 emissions gases.

Most importantly, please try not to over cater - one of the kindest things you can do for the planet is reduce food waste.

We encourage our green-minded followers to get arty and re-purpose old fabrics, magazines, books or comics to make your bunting and décor instead of buying plastic items that end up in landfill.  And please avoid using balloons as these can ultimately litter the environment if they are released or become untied and harm our wildlife.

Finally, don’t forget, wherever you are celebrating – in your street, in the park, on a beach – make sure you clear away all the rubbish at the end and recycle as much of it as possible.

Have a wonderful Jubilee celebration, however you choose to mark it!