A Green Halloween?

Have you ever really thought about precisely how much waste is involved in your typical Halloween? From the costumes to the decorations to the candy each in it’s own little container it is a holiday that practically seems dedicated to waste…but it doesn’t have to be at all.

 

Let’s start with costumes – do you absolutely HAVE to go to your local retailer and buy one? You have plenty of time to dig around in old dress up clothes, the back of closets and/or second hand stores to come up with some awesome possibilities. There is no end to what you can create with old Amazon boxes, hangers from the dry cleaners, well cleaned off meat trays and your own imagination.

 

Decorations, lots of wonderful upcycling possibilities here too – old ripped pantyhose (if anyone still wears them) can become spiderwebs instead of buying the prefab ones made of petroleum products, those nice heavy duty Amazon boxes could become tombstones, etc., etc. This is your grand opportunity to make lots of cool somethings out of nothing.

 

And candy…this one is a little trickier because we still want our children to be safe. However, consider perhaps buying candy that comes in cardboard boxes instead of plastic wrap or even foil rather than plastic. But if you can’t go quite that far, because…well, just because, think about buying candy that does come from sustainable sources several of the big candy companies are or are working toward using products that are sustainably sourced.

 

Here are a couple of links to get you thinking:

 

The Eco Hub: https://theecohub.com

Tree Hugger: https://www.treehugger.com/how-to-go-green-for-halloween-4859913

10 Green Halloween Tips: https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/10-green-halloween-tips

 

-Traci Smith