Disposing of a lot of compostable party waste. Any suggestions?

ask the supplier ?

That's a good idea!

There's Cowbridge Compost not too far away.

Good effort. Pet hate is being served compostable food packaging and then find there is no compostable/food bin...rarely even see a separate bin for normal recyclables at takeaway stalls?

Garden waste bin if the food has been cleaned off first?

Or can you borrow/hire crockery from a supermarket for a nominal fee. Pretty sure I’ve had glasses in the past that way.  This would be more eco, a few dishwasher runs needed being the downside!!

It's the leftover food e.g. bones and mellon rind as well as the paper? plates that we're planning to compost. But I really like the hire crockery option. I'll see if it's a possibility.

One wedding we went to (eco style in a field) the couple went around charity shops and collected lots of bone china cups and saucers for the tea party bit, and encouraged guests to take them home. I'm assuming the rest got taken back to the charity shops.  You could extend that idea to plates and cutlery I guess.

(They also had eco composting toilets and a couple of hay bales behind a hazel fence for the blokes to piss on! And bought their own old mess tents/marques incase it was bad weather, and planned to sell them on afterwards)

Find someone with a hot composter for the food.

We used compostable plates, cups and bowls at work during COVID but produced far to much waste to be able to compost it. They all ended up in the paper recycling bin.

I think composting only really makes sense if you’re doing it yourself. Even then, you’re not really supposed to use meat scraps, bones etc due to attracting rats etc.

Hiring is definitely more environmentally friendly, “hiring” from charity shops even better (tho more hassle as would require multiple trips most likely!) Nothing would match, but you could make a thing of it, plus not have to worry about getting charged for any breakages!

One wedding we went to (eco style in a field) the couple went around charity shops and collected lots of bone china cups and saucers for the tea party bit, and encouraged guests to take them home

We did the 'bone china teacups from charity shops' approach for our wedding too. My god, once my wife's extended family had gotten onto the idea we were getting carrier bags full of teacups on a weekly basis for a month or more beforehand, it was chaos 😀

I think composting only really makes sense if you’re doing it yourself. Even then, you’re not really supposed to use meat scraps, bones etc due to attracting rats etc.

I had the opposite view and thought most compostable packaging and plastics etc was not suitable for a home composting heap and required commercial style composting with heat/digester etc.

I had the opposite view and thought most compostable packaging and plastics etc was not suitable for a home composting heap and required commercial style composting with heat/digester etc.

https://recycleforgreatermanchester.com/blog/the-truth-about-compostable-packaging/

In a garden setup, you have all the time in the world. All our compost bins are south facing in direct sun all day. They get really hot inside, especially when you use the correct mix of stuff. (And we don't yet have a specific hot-composter, just the cheapo bins you get from the local council!) If we take something out which hasn't fully composted, it just goes back in the top 🤷‍♂️

We used compostable plates, cups and bowls at work during COVID but produced far to much waste to be able to compost it. They all ended up in the paper recycling bin.

Compostable cutlery/crockery is actually a bit of a PITA to compost.

It definitely shouldn't go in the paper because the food waste will contaminate the entire load of paper meaning it all has to be landfilled/incinerated/composted.

Whether it goes in food waste, garden waste, wood waste or the normal bin depends on the facilities, it often needs longer to compost than normal 'compost' so can't go through the normal processing.

There's a big hoo-harr in Wokingham as the outgoing Tory council spent a fortune on green plastic bags to line the food waste bins, without considering that
a) there's no point lining your food waste bin, it achieves nothing. You either have a skanky bag of week old food scraps, or a skanky bin of week old food scraps. It's just the same when you open the lid.
b) someone has to then remove the food waste from the bag at the recycling center as they can't go through the digestor
So now the Lib-Dem council has scrapped them to save money, and the Tory's are all but telling people to stop recycling in protest.

I'd agree that something being "compostable" is not necessarily eco at the end of the day. It's still a single-use thing. Re-use is always going to be better. (I'd also argue that the main advantage of foods like hog roasts, pizza slices, buffet/finger foods is you don't need plates/cutlery at all! Just equip people with stout napkins! Although appreciate it's a wedding so you're probably trying to be "posh" 😃)

Update for those who might be interested. I spent a couple of hours separating the waste with the help of my brother. Unfortunately I could not find anywhere would compost the allegedly compostable plates and cups, despite the packaging saying that they were compostable. They ended up in ”general waste" 😞.

Loads of uneaten food had to go into the food waste bins at the local tip. I felt really bad about that. However loads more was accepted by the community food bank.

The happy couple have returned from their honeymoon to rainy Wales with huge smiles on their faces 😁.

Many thanks for your help folks, Ambrose