You can reuse pretty paper plates if they have a smooth finish and are not soaked with grease. Just run them under warm water for a second and wipe dry with towel. When on vacation, we take matching sets of paper plates and napkins and just a few of them can last the whole trip so you are not creating a lot of trash. We also take real silverware and small mugs and stuff it all in a picnic basket. Pretty paper plates are pricey, so get your value out of them. An elderly Yankee lady taught me how to reuse paper plates that just had sandwiches/chips/cake/ etc. on them.

Use handkreifs

other nations are more advanced then this.

I use and prefer cloth napkins. They perform much better than paper ones. (Same goes for handkerchiefs over tissue paper.)

I'm having a hard time reducing my paper towel use :(