It’s not hard for unforeseen circumstances to ruin the perfect party. A surprise thunderstorm can roll in and drench your cookout. Bad traffic can have guests arriving late, and when they do make it there, the enervating drive leaves them in less than celebratory spirits. And we’ve heard our share of stories about having to cancel birthday parties at the last minute because the guest of honor fell off a ladder trying to hang their own “H-A-P-P-Y-B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y” letters from the ceiling.

One that can derail a party without extinguished charcoals or broken tailbones is guilt—guilt over expending the resources to put on a party, knowing how the poor stewardship of natural resources is affecting our entire world. While some gatherings can be a little too resource-intensive for our peace of mind—fireworks celebrations, we’re looking at you—it’s not necessary to spoil your own party by feeling like you don’t deserve it. You can always throw a sustainable celebration with biodegradable party supplies. We’ll show you how.

Bagasse Plates

We’ll start simple. Sugarcane byproduct doesn’t go to waste—after processors extract the sugar and leave behind the highly fibrous cellulose that we call bagasse, some of it fires up the boilers that operate the processing plant itself. The rest of it becomes paper products, such as these biodegradable plates. While they look like plain white paper plates at first glance, their sugarcane content makes them deceptively sturdy and fit for piling party food high. Once you’ve cleaned your plate, you can throw them in the compost heap.

Palm-Leaf Plates and Bowls

If the austere whites of bagasse dinnerware don’t provide enough style for your celebration, perhaps the wood-grain appearance of palm-leaf dinnerware is more your speed. As with bagasse, manufacturers have devised a way to make the most of something that would otherwise go into the garbage—in this case, the fronds that fall from palm trees as they grow. Heat processing turns tropical yard waste into durable and beautiful plates, bowls, and dishes, all of which can go right back to the earth.

Birchwood Flatware

Throwing a sustainable celebration with biodegradable party supplies even extends to your forks, spoons, and knives. Forget about plastic flatware—the tines of the forks can break easily, the knives never seem to cut right, and all of it ends up taking up more space in our ever-growing landfills. The birch trees that dot the Midwestern and Northeastern United States yield durable wood that we can carve into surprisingly effective flatware. Just like the other sustainable offerings from Smarty Had a Party, these are 100-percent biodegradable party supplies, with no harmful chemicals or processing that makes them unfit for your compost heap. It’s easy to make your next party an eco-friendly and guilt-free one. Safely hanging those shiny letters from the ceiling, however, is still harder than it looks.