Halloween is one of the best holidays of the year (and certainly the sweetest). The weather finally starts to cool, spooky movies are on replay all over TV, we get to gorge on sugary treats, and we can catch an adrenaline rush on some pretty freaky stuff.
One of the scariest parts of Halloween to us TreePeople is the wasteful side of the holiday.
Costumes that go from the rack to the streets to the trash, landfills full of pumpkins, and streets covered in candy wrappers freak us out more than any haunted house ever will. So what can you do to have a sustainable Halloween?
Here are some tips from our Recycling Wizard, Kenny, on what you can do during the Halloween season to support the earth that supports us every day!
1. Get Creative With Your Costume
Wearing a costume is the funnest part of Halloween – it allows us to express ourselves in ways we normally can’t! But buying a cheap costume from a large retailer only to throw it away the day after the holiday (or months after your kiddos grow out of them) is a massive creator of waste!
Instead, get costumes and accessories from thrift stores. Thrifting is an incredibly sustainable way to buy clothes throughout the year, but during the Halloween season, finding the perfect outfit in a shop feels more like a treasure hunt than ever.
Have a costume swap party with friends! This is especially fun with a group of kids in the same age range.
If you’re feeling the DIY spirit, you can also make a costume at home! Fortunately, websites like YouTube and Pinterest are chock-full of inspiration and helpful guidance.
2. Take Advantage of Those Pumpkins
Pumpkins aren’t just decoration, they’re also an excellent healthy snack. Take those sticky seeds from the middle (and we all know that this is the most satisfying part of carving pumpkins anyways), clean them off, and make roasted pumpkin seeds in the oven! The internet is absolutely full of recipes.
Once Halloween is over, throw your pumpkins in a compost pile. If composting isn’t something you do at home, put them in the green waste bins or donate them to a local composting organization (check your local community garden, for example).
3. Consume Candy Responsibly
One of the biggest factors of Halloween waste is candy.
One way to reduce your candy-related waste is to bypass a plastic pumpkin and use a pillowcase (just like the movies) or reusable bag to collect your candy!
When it comes to buying candy to give out, stick to candies with recyclable packaging: packaging made of cardboard. This includes Nerds, Dots, and Junior Mints. Plastic packaging can’t be recycled, so the best thing you can do is make sure it goes where it belongs: in the trash.
There’s no rule that says Halloween can’t be fun AND sustainable. So follow our tips, always keep the earth in mind, and have a blast on all of your Halloween adventures!