Party Kit Network

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Hello! My name is Isabel. 

In 2019 I founded the Party Kit Network which is now a registered nonprofit community interest company, working to make parties more sustainable. We aim to make reusable party kits an accessible and easy way to avoid waste from disposables.

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Starting my sustainable living journey

My interest in sustainability started in 2018 with a concerted effort to reduce single-use plastic at home.  We’d been using reusable water bottles for a while and were already pretty waste conscious when it came to food, but it was a friend’s Facebook post about her Who Gives a Crap toilet paper delivery which was the catalyst for me to start making real changes. 

I began by trying to better understand the problems with single-use plastic and waste.  I was shocked and angry at how thoughtlessly our planet’s resources are wasted - I had naively thought that someone was just sorting it out, but I soon realised that change must start with us.  

My efforts to live more sustainably and reduce waste led me to follow the Sustainable(ish) blog by Jen Gale.  

Discovering a party kit 

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In June 2019 Jen published a blog post about setting up reusable party kits and I just thought it was such an amazingly simple idea - a box of reusable tableware and decorations hired out for parties to help avoid waste from single-use items like paper plates.  

My young son was yet to enter the phase of perpetual birthday parties, but I was already dreading the plastic party bags filled with plastic tat, so I was really encouraged to see that people were taking positive action to make parties more sustainable. 

I wanted to know if there was a party kit near me, but how would I find it? 

Partnership with Zero Waste Near Me 

My background is in ecommerce so I’m used to solving problems with digital solutions.  In my efforts to reduce waste at home I’d discovered Zero Waste Near Me,  a great online directory of zero waste stores and community projects based across the UK.  So I suggested a collaboration with the founder, Dian Sofia, as I thought party kits would make a great addition to her website, helping to make this information accessible to more people.   

We weren’t sure how many party kits there would be, but it took just 4 days to find the first 20 kits and since then almost everyone else has found us! 

Founding the Party Kit Network

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The momentum grew so quickly that I felt party kits really needed their own platform.  All the party kits are still listed on Zero Waste Near Me and Dian is a one of our board members, but in August 2019 I launched a dedicated website for the Party Kit Network

With the new website, as well as providing information about local party kits, I could now better explain the party kit concept and provide more ideas to make parties more eco-friendly, including how to avoid those plastic party bags. 

Role of the Party Kit Network 

All the party kits in the Party Kit Network are run independently by people from home, by small local businesses and community groups, such as school PTAs and lending libraries. 

The network aims to bring together all the people lending party kits to help spread the word faster.  

The role of the network includes supporting people to set up and operate party kits for their local community.  We now provide a detailed guide to setting up a party kit, access to suppliers and training, and have built an active support community via our Facebook group. 

By March 2020, just 8 month after we first started looking for party kits, there were nearly 400 kits listed on the website.  In just one day, if each party kit was hired for a party, we could now save over 40,000 single-use items from landfill.  In a year, that number could be millions. 

How does a party kit work? 

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To hire a party kit for your next party, check for your local kit via the map on our website.  Then contact the party kit owner to arrange your booking.  A few kits are lent for free and many are run as fundraising activities for local schools and charities. The average hire price is around 50p per person. 

As all the party kits are run independently there is a range of equipment and services available, but as a minimum all party kits listed include reusable plates and cups.  Many also include bowls, cutlery, serving platters, table linen and decorations such as bunting - everything you need for a party, just add food! 

Many party kits also offer pass-the-parcel bags.  Reusable fabric bags used instead of wrapping paper, these are a great way to reduce waste and save time without spoiling the fun. 

A washing up service is available with many party kits so once the party is over, simply return everything in the box for it to be used again (and again!). 

Some party kits will also compost leftover food waste and collect food packaging for available recycling schemes, really helping to further reduce waste from parties. 

Hopes for the future

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I understand why disposable plates are popular; they are colourful and make tidying up a piece of cake.  But I really believe that the party kit can make a sustainable choice accessible to more people. 

A party kit is often cheaper to hire than to buy the equivalent disposables, and with everything you need for the party in the box, it is one of the few sustainable changes which can actually be more convenient. 

I hope that by making this change easy, we can inspire people to consider other ways to make sustainable choices.  We are collaborating with the One Earth Show, an event at the NEC Birmingham in 2021 which hopes to inspire more people to learn about the changes we can make to reduce our impact on the planet. 

In the future I hope the network is able to expand the support we can offer to help more party kits to set up.  This will give many more communities access to this waste-saving solution. 

I didn’t set out to create a network - I simply wanted to solve a problem, which for me was how to find my local party kit.  It is the passion and enthusiasm of the dedicated people who run party kits which has driven me.

After facing the realities of why sustainable living is so important, working on the Party Kit Network has given me hope. To be involved in positive action which can make even a very small difference is very powerful. 

Website: https://partykitnetwork.uk 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/partykitnetwork/

Instagram: https://instagram.com/partykitnetwork/  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/partykitnetwork/

Post lockdown note: We are doing small kit hire again! - in line with current guidance we provide kits for up to 12 people in areas where there’s no local restrictions. We also offer health & safety guidance and training to kit owners to support safe lending.

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